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A5V^:<i- 


JAC^IKS   I  AirriKU 


THE  NORTHWEST 
UNDER  THREE   FLAGS 


1635-1706 


By 

CHAELES    MOORE 


WITH  MAPS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

PIARPER   k    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1000 


;  ■  --'  ;  ■/ 1 


Ml 


ytas 


.\ 


Copyright,  1900,  by  Chaeles  Moobe. 


All  iighti  rttened. 


TO 


A.  W.  M.  M. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   FRENCH   OCCUPY   THE   NORTHWEST 

Jacq'ics  Cartier  ou  the  St.  Lawrence — Cliamplain,  tlie  Father  of  New- 
France —  Wanderings  of  !^lienne  Brule  —  Brule  Tells  Sa^ard  of 
Lake  Superior  and  Shows  Him  u  Copper  Ingot— Nicolct  Discov- 
ers Lake  ^lichigau  —  Green  Bay  and  Its  People  —  Drowning  of 
Nicolet  and  Birth  of  Joliet — Kaymbault  and  Jogues  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie — The  Backbone  of  tlie  New  World — The  Kelentless  Iro- 
quois— Fall  of  the  Huron  ^Missions — ^ledard  Chouart,  Sieur  dcs 
Grosseilliers — Peter  Esprit  Btulisson  as  a  Captive — Grosseilliers 
and  Radisson  on  Lake  jMichigan — Near  the  ^lississippi — Ambigui- 
ties in  Radisson's  Voynfjes — Father  Rene  Menard  on  the  Great  Lake 
— His  Death  in  the  Woods — Radisson  Describes  the  Beauties  of 
Lake  Superior — The  White  fish — The  Grand  Sal)les  —  Pictured 
Rocks — The  Keweenaw  Portage — The  Sioux — A  Winter  Gather- 
ing at  the  Head  of  Lake  Superior — The  Ingratitude  of  Rulers — 
The  Hudson  Bay  Company — Father  Claude  Allouez  Hears  of  iho 
Missepi — Marquette  Longs  to  Find  the  Great  River — St.  Ignace 
Founded  by  ]Marquet*e— Sieur  Saint  Lusson  Claims  the  West  iov 
France — Louis  Joliet  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie — ^Marquette  and  Joliet 
Start  for  the  Mississippi — Their  Success  and  Their  Return— Mar- 
quette Drawn  to  the  Southern  Savages— His  Death  Voyage — X 
Strange  Funeral  Procession — The  First  Ship  on  the  Upper  Lakes 
— La  Salle  and  the  Griffin — An  Ambitious  Explorer— Henry  do 
Tonty — Father  Hennepin  Longs  to  See  New  Countries — Lake 
Ste.  Claire— Pilot  Lucas  Navigates  Fresh  Water— The  Loss  of  the 
Griffin — Fort  Crevecceur — A  Winter  Journe}' Page  1 

CHAPTER   II 

CADILLAC  FOUNDS  DETROIT 

France  in  Control  Throughout  the  Northwest— Inroads  of  the  Eng- 
lish—French Forts  in  the  Detroit  Country— Fort  St.  Joseph  on 

V 


CONTENTS 

the  St.  Clair — .Alichiliinacklnac  a  Strategic  Point  for  the  Fur- 
trade — Cadillac — I.oquois  Broth  —  Robert  Livingston's  Plan  to 
Build  a  Fort  on  the  Detroit— Cadillac  at  Quebec  and  Paris — Con- 
trol of  the  Indians— Detroit  Founded — French  Trade  >r<»nopolies 
—Father  Carheil,  a  Devoted  Missionary— Cad  iliac  as  a  ]\I()ses — The 
Sale  of  Brandy — Beginnings  of  Family  Life  in  the  Nuilhwest — 
Prosperity  of  Detroit — The  Commandant's  Extortions— Dubuis- 
son  at  Detroit— Attack  by  the  Mascoutins  and  Ottagamies — Help 
from  the  Allies — The  Battle  at  Grosse  Pointe — Immigration  from 
Franco — The  Jesuits  Engross  the  Trade — Count  IJepcntigny  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie Page  38 

CHAPTER   III 

THE    EXOLISU    IN   THE    OHIO   COUNTRY 

The  French  in  Possession  of  the  Northwest — Tlie  Discoveries  of  the 
Cabots  the  Basis  of  the  Enirlish  Claims — Sir  Walter  Raleigh — 
First  English  Settlement  upon  Roanoke  Island  —  Jamestown 
Founded — Plymouth  Company  Chiirtered — Early  English  Grants 
— Claims  of  Virginia,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  and  Nev.- York 
— The  Yirgiiua  Corporation  Dissolved— Character  of  the  Early 
Colonists  of  Virginia — The  "Washington  Family — Lord  Fairfax 
and  the  Culpeper  Grant  —  George  Washington  as  a  Surveyor — 
Scotch-Irish  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley — The  Scotch -Irish  Under- 
take to  Protect  Frontiers  if  Allowed  Libert}^  of  Conscience — The 
Oido  Company — Celoron  on  the  Ohio— Christopher  Gist's  Explo- 
rations for  the  Ohio  Company — Logstown— Gist  and  Croghau  on 
the  i\[uskingum — Gist  the  First  Protestant  to  IloUi  Religious  Ser- 
vices in  the  Northwest — Treaties  with  Delawares  and  Shawanesc 
— The  Journey  to  Piqua — An  Ottawa  Embassy  from  Detroit — 
Gist  Returns  Home  Through  Kentucky— Lawrence  Washington 
at  the  Head  of  the  Ohio  Company — Religious  Toleration — The 
Treaty  at  Logstown  in  1752 — Gist  Removes  to  Ohio— Celorou  at 
Detroit — Charles  Langlade  Attacks  Piqua — Duqtiesne  Prepares 
to  Occupy  the  Ohio  Couutrj' — Governor  Dinwiddie  Sends  George 
Washington  with  a  Message  to  tlie  French — Washington  at  Logs- 
town — The  Position  of  the  Indians — Washington  at  Venango — 
Captain  Joncaire  —  Washington  Delivers  His  IMessage  —  PuL)li- 
cation  in  England  of  Washington's  Journal — Governor  Dinwid- 
die Puts  Virginia  on  the  War  Footing — Lukewarmncss  of  the 
Colonies — The  Albany  Assembly — English  Claims  to  the  Ohio — 
Sir  William  Johnson — Franklin's  Plan  for  a  Union  of  the  Colo- 
nies— Franklin  Favors  Inland  Colonies  on  the  Ohio — Fort  Neces- 
sity— The  Braddock  Campaign — Washington  Becomes  a  Member 
of  Braddock's  Military  Family  —  Braddock's  Defeat  —  Langlade 

vi 


CONTEXTS 

Leads  the  Attnck  — Tlic  English  Frontier  Rolled  Back  — The 
French  and  Indian  War — The  Humiliation  of  England  in  Amer- 
ica and  Etiropc — The  Rise  of  Pilt — General  John  Forbes  Occu- 
pies Fort  DiKiuesne — The  Fall  of  Quebec  and  Montreal — Major 
Robert  Rogers  Receives  the  Surrender  of  Detroit — Rogers  Meets 
Ponliac— The  British  Control  the  Northwest .Page  03 


o^ 


CIIAFTER   IV 

THE   rONTIAC   WAR 

Readjustments  after  the  French  and  Indian  War  —  Isolation  of  the 
Northwest— Captain  Donald  Campbell's  Card-parties — An  Indian 
War  Impending — Sir  William  Johnson  Enjoys  Detroit  Society — 
Rumors  of  French  and  Spimish  Conquest  —  Sir  Robert  Davcrs 
Visits  the  Upper  Lakes— 3Iajor  Henry  Gladwin  in  Command — 
Poutiac's.  Council  at  the  River  Ecorses  —  Reports  of  Indian 
Treachery  —  Carver's  Story  of  Pontiac's  Repulse  —  The  Real  In- 
formant—  Sketch  of  Henry  Gladwin  —  Murder  of  the  Supposed 
Traitor— A  Fatal  Council— The  Attack  on  Detroit— A  Restless 
Corpse — Murder  of  Sir  Robert  Davers— The  Prospcjt  of  Resist- 
ance— Council  at  ^I.  Cuillcrier's  House — Pontiac  Essentially  a  Sav- 
age—Gladwin's  Problem  —  British  Disasters  at  Sandusky,  the 
?diamis,  and  St.  Joseph — Capture  of  the  Bateaux  —  The  Dark 
Days — The  Massacre  at  Michilimackinac — Pontiac  at  Church — 
Indian  Currency  —  News  of  the  Treaty  Between  England  and 
France — The  French  Join  the  English— Fire-rafts— The  Torture 
of  Captain  Campbell — Dalyell's  Sortie — Robert  Rogers  Makes  a 
Stand— The  Brave  Death  of  Dalycll— Bloody  Run— The  Attack 
on  the  Gladitin  —  Fonimc's  ^lessage  to  the  Illinois  French  —  An 
Unsatisfactory  Answer — Gladwin's  Opinion  of  the  French — Rum 
]More  Potent  than  Fire-arms — Failure  of  Poutiac's  Conspirac}' — 
Gladwin  at  Court— Bradstrcet  at  Detroit 106 

CHAPTER   V 

ENGLAND   TAKES    POSSESSION    OF  THE   NORTHWEST 

England's  Gains  by  the  Seven  Years'  War — Franklin  Argues  for  the 
Retention  of  Canada — Disunion  Among  the  Colonies — The  Bar- 
barity of  an  Indian  Frontier — Pennsylvania's  Trade  with  England 
— The  Governments  of  Quebec,  the  Floridas,  and  Grenada— Re- 
strictions as  to  Land  Grants — Frauds  and  Abuses  in  Indian  Pur- 
chases—  The  First  Charter  of  the  Northwest  —  The  Ohio  Com- 
pany's New  Plans — Cresap  and  Bouquet — L'neasiness  in  Virginia 
— Governor  Farquier  —  Bouquet  Anticipates  a  Land  Bubble  — 
Character  of  tke  Settlers— Indians  Alarmed  at  the  Inroads  of  the 

vii 


CONTENTS 

Settlers— The  Battle  of  Bushy  Run— The  Colonial  Militia  Laws 

—  Sketch  of  Colonel  Henry  Boufjuet — Brail  street's  Message  — 
The  BoiKjuet  Expedition  to  the  iMuskin^nim  —  Indian  Treaties 
— Tlie  Sava/;es  Promise  Pence  —  Sir  William  Johnson  the  Peace- 
maker—Ileturn  of  the  Prisoners  — George  Croghan  on  the  Ohio 

—  Messages  to  the  Freneii  Traders  — At  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  — 
"Pos*  Vincent"— Father  Marest's  Letter— Francois  Morgan  de  Vin- 
Benne— Croghan  r.nd  His  Captors— Pontiac  and  Croghan  at  Fort 
Chartres— The  Secret  Treaty  Between  France  and  Spain— Spain 
Contnds  Louisiana  —  Lieutenant  Eraser  Rescued  hy  Pontiac  — 
Pontiac  at  Oswego  —  Murder  of  Pontiac  —  Croghan  at  Detroit — 
The  Walpole  Grant — Sir  William  Johnson  and  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin—Lord Shelhurne's  Approval,  Lord  Hillsborough's  Opposition 
— Combination  with  the  Ohio  Company— Tlie  Treaty  of  German 
Flats— The  Iroquois  Claims—"  The  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground  "— 
Sketch  of  Sir  William  Johnson — The  Boundary  Moved  from  the 
Allcghanics  to  the  Ohio — Franklin's  Success  ;  Lord  Hillsborough's 
llesignation  —  Vandalia  —  Virginians  in  the  Kentucky  Region  — 
Pittsburg  a  Virginia  Town  — Lord  Dunmore's  Perplexities — The 
Growth  of  Indi'pcndence  —  Dunmore's  Land  Speculations  —  The 
Greatliouse  IMurdcrs  —  The  Dunmore  War— The  Battle  of  Point 
Pleasant  —  Logan's  Message  —  jL'fferson's  Injustice  to  Captain 
Cresup— The  Northwest  Pledged  to  Freedom Page  141 

CHAPTER   VI 

THE  QUEBEC  ACT  AND  THE  EEVOLUTIoX 

The  British  Policy  flakes  the  Northwest  a  Hunting-ground  —  The 
Struggle  for  New  Lands — General  James  Murray,  Governor  of 
Canada — Succeeded  by  General  Guy  Carleton — The  French  Un- 
fitted for  English  Law — The  Quebec  Act  a  Necessity  for  Ciinada 
— The  Americaiis  Resent  It — Tlie  ]Measure  in  Parliament- Chat- 
ham Opposes  It  as  "  Cruel,  Odious,  and  Oppressive  " — His  Proph- 
ecy—Lord North's  Defence — Tlie  North  west  a  Country  of  "Bears 
and  Beavers" — Church  Establishment — Colonel  Barre  to  the  Res- 
cue— Charles  Fox  Objects  to  Tillies — Edmund  Burke  Successfully 
Struggles  to  Fix  New  York  Boundaries  —  Tiie  Penns  Protest — 
General  Carleton  Before  the  Commons — The  Canadians  AVant  no 
Seditious  Assemblies  Like  Those  in  America — A  Governor  Doubt- 
ful as  to  the  Extent  of  His  D(  minions — The  Northwest  an  As}-- 
lum  for  Vagabonds — Indian  Independence — Unavailing  Protests 
Against  the  Quebec  Bill — Beginnings  of  Civil  Government  in 
the  Northwest — Henry  Hamilton,  Lieutenant-Governor — Crosses 
Montreal  in  Disguise — Reaches  Detroit  and  Likes  the  Place — The 
English  Crowd  Out  the  French— Trader  and  Cheat— Indian  De- 

•  ■  • 

via 


COxVTENTS 

baucherics— Detroit  Frcncli  in  Sympnlliy  witli  tho  Virginians— 
Spanisli  Intrigues — Tlic  Dt'clanition  of  Independence  Brought  to 
Detroit — Hamilton's  AngcT— Daniel  IJoonc  a  Prisoner  at  Detroit- 
Hamilton  Tries  to  Kansoni  the  Pioneer — Boone's  Escape — Ham- 
ilton Practices  the  War-dance  —  Lieutenant-Governor  Abbott,  of 
Viuccnncs  —  Indians  Congratulated  on  the  Number  of  Scalps 
Brought  in  —  Carleton  to  be  Succeeded  by  Haldimund  —  Savage 
Diplomacy  —  M.  de  Uocheblave's  Capture  at  Kaskaskia  An- 
nounced to  Hamilton  —  Hamilton  Prepares  to  Drive  the  Ameri- 
cans from  tlie  Illinois — Daniel  Boone  in  Kentucky — The  Colony 
of  Transylvania — George  llogers  Clark  Elected  to  the  Virginia 
Assembly  from  Kentucky — He  Visits  Governor  Patri(  k  Henry — 
Obtains  a  Supply  of  Ponder — The  County  of  Kentucky — Clark's 
Bi)ld  Plans— The  French  Alliance  with  the  Colonies  Aids  Clark — 
Clark  Walks  into  Kaskaskia — Father  Gibault  Undertakes  a  Revo- 
lution at  Vinceunes  —  Virginia's  County  of  Illinois  —  American 
Civil  Government  Begins  in  the  Northwest — Old  Mackinac— Cap- 
tain Arcnt  Sclniyler  de  Peyster — A  Poet-soldier — Langlade  Takes 
the  Lake  Indians  to  ^lontreal  —  A  Boy's  Baptism  of  Fire  —  A 
Favorite  of  the  Manitou  —  Langlade's  Exploits  at  Quebec  — He 
Takes  the  Oath  of  Allegiance  to  the  English  King  —  Chevalier 
St.  Luc  la  Corne  and  Langlade  on  Lake  Champlain  —  Burgoyne 
Charges  His  Defeat  to  the  Desertion  of  the  Savages — Langlade 
Incites  the  Lake  Indians  to  Invade  the  Illinois  Countr}- — Hamil- 
ton Supported  by  the  War  Ministers  —  His  Difllculties  —  Lord 
George  Germain  Issues  Orders  to  Stir  Up  the  Indians — The  Vin- 
cennes  Expedition — Hamilton  Captures  Fort  Sackville — Francis 
Vigo — Clark  Must  Take  or  Be  Taken — A  Desperate  Chance  and 
a  Terrible  Journey  —  Success  —  Hamilton  Makes  the  Best  of  a 
Bad  Matter  —  ^Mr.  Justice  Dejean  and  His  Suppli^is  Captured — 
Jefferson  Orders  Hamilton  in  Irons— Clark  Plans  the  Capture  of 
Detroit — The  Savages  Terrorized — Fort  Patrick  Henry— JefTerson 
Plans  a  Fort  on  the  Mississippi — Land-warrants  in  Lieu  of  Boun- 
ties— Tobacco  Currency — Jefferson's  Instructions  as  to  the  Ind- 
ians—Clark's Popularity  —  Failure  of  Plans  for  an  Aggressive 
Campaign  in  the  Northwest Page  195 

CHAPTER   VII 

THE    WAR   IN   THE    NORTHWEST 

Frederick  Ilaldimand— Takes  Service  with  the  British— A  Successful 
Administrator  —  Ilaldimand  Commands  the  English  Forces  in 
America  — Gives  Way  at  New  York  to  a  Born  Briton  — He  is 
Transferred  to  Quebec  —  Negotiates  for  a  Reunion  of  Vermont 
with  the  Crown— Detroit  in  Danger  — Haldimand's  Thriit— The 


CONTENTS 

Indians  Expensive  Allies— Captain  Richard  Beringcr  Lernoult — 
Isadore  Chene  Kcporlj  the  Capture  of  Hamilton — Captain  Bird 
Builds  Fort  Lernoult;  Clark's  Sarcasm — Bird  Leads  the  Indians 
to  War— The  Savages  "  Always  Cooking  or  Counselling  " — Forts 
Mcintosh  and  Laurens  Built  and  Deserted — Bird  in  Kentucky — 
Clark  Retaliates— Captain  Patt  Sinclair  at  Michilimackinac — ITe 
Removes  the  Fort  to  the  Island — Father  GibauU's  Mischief — Sin- 
clair Plans  an  Incursion  to  the  Illinois  Country  —  Attacks  the 
Spanish  lown  of  St.  Louis— Si)ain  Plans  to  Invade  the  North- 
west— Tlie  ^Movable  Fort  St.  Joseph — The  Spanish  on  the  Missis- 
sippi— A  "Winter  Expedition — St.  Joseph  Captured — The  Effect 
in  Madrid — Spain's  Extensive  Claims  to  the  N(;rthwest — De  Peys- 
ter  Relieves  Lernoult  at  Detroit— His  Kindness  to  Captives — The 
Campaign  of  1780 — Rumors  Running  TiirougU  the  Forests  — 
Scalps  and  Prisoners  Sent  to  Detroit— Butler's  Rangers  Invade 
Kentucky- -The  Removal  of  the  Moravians  —  De  Peyster  Sum- 
mons the  Missionaries  to  Detroit — Captain  Pipe — The  3Ioravian3 
Deny  Having  Aided  the  Americans  —  Their  Towns  in  the  Mus- 
kingum Valley  —  De  Pej'ster  Establishes  the  ]\Ioravians  on  the 
Clinton  River — Their  Wanderings — The  Moravian  Massacre  Ex- 
cites the  Apprehensions  of  the  English — Fort  Pitt's  Commanders 
— General  Irvine  Brings  Order  Out  of  Chaos  —  "One  Iluudred 
Lashes,  Well  Laid  On  " — The  Revolution  at  an  End,  but  Not  in 
the  Northwest  —  The  Crawford  Expedition  Against  the  lliami 
Indians— Washington  and  Crawford— Tlie  Savages  Appeal  to  De 
Peyster  for  Aid— Haldimand  Exhorts  De  Peyster  to  Repel  the 
Raid — Defeat  of  the  Americans  b}'  the  British  and  Indians — Re- 
treat—  Crawford's  Death  by  Torture  —  His  Fate  a  Retaliation 
for  the  ^loravian  Massacre  —  The  Attack  on  Bryan's  Station  — 
Clark  Ends  the  Revolution  in  the  Northwest — Border  Warfare 
Must  Continue  —  Liberation  of  tlie  Captives  —  The  Chamber  of 
Scalps Page  245 

CHAPTER   VIII 

PEACE  THAT  TEOVES  NO  PEACE 

Lord  Chatham's  Dying  Appeal — France  Plans  Revenge  for  the  Treaty 
of  17G3— Louis  XVI.  Forgets  and  Remembers — Franklin's  Unique 
Position  in  F'rjiuce — John  Adams  Made  Peace  Commissioner  — 
The  Demands  of  Congress — France  is  Anxious  to  Curb  the  Power 
of  the  United  States — Spain  Strives  to  Win  Gibraltar — The  Atti- 
tude of  Prussia  and  Russia  —  England's  Shifting  Policy  —  Lord 
Shelburne's  Growth  in  Grace  Towards  America — Franklin's  Pa- 
ternal Appeals  to  Louis  XVI.— He  Begins  Separate  Negotiations 
with  England— John  Adams  Negotiates  a  Treaty  with  Holland — 

X 


CONTENTS 

John  Jay's  Failure  in  Spain— Franklin  Summons  Ilim  to  Paris — 
Jay  13ecomes  the  Leadur  in  the  Peace  Negotiations — The  Fear  of 
American  Growtli  antl  Power  was  Natural — Shelburne's  Ultimata 
— Jay  Wins  Oswald's  Confidence — The  Northwest  Boundary  Dis- 
cussions— Jay's  Ingenious  Argument  to  Obtain  the  Waste  Lands 
— A  Choice  of  Lines  Offered  to  the  British — The  Treaty  Signed — 
America  Congratulated  on  the  Work  of  the  Commissioners  — 
Downfall  of  the  Shelburne  Ministry — The  North -Fox  Coalition 
Co/idemns  and  Adopts  the  Treaty — Ilaldimand  Warns  'I'ownsend 
to  Protect  the  Fur-trade — Good  lleasons  for  His  Apprehensions- 
Competition  the  Bane  of  Trade — The  NorUiwest  Company — The 
Grand  Portage— The  Spring  Flotilla — The  Fur -traders  in  the 
Northern  Wilderness  —  Dangers  of  the  Bush-ranger's  Life— The 
Opulence  of  the  Trader  Barons — Private  Vessels  Forbidden  on  the 
Lakes — Washington  Demands  the  Surrender  of  the  Posts— Baron 
Steujen's  Fruitless  Errand  —  ILddimand's  Prudence  —  Jefferson 
Argues  for  the  Surrender  of  the  Posts — The  British  Contention — 
Ilahlimnnd  Interested  for  the  Loyalists — Bnmt  Forms  a  New  Ind- 
ian Confederacy — Brant  a  Lion  in  England — A  War-wboop  at  a 
Masked-ball — The  Indian  Demands — They  Appeal  to  Heaven  for 
Justification — ^Message  to  Congress — Lord  Dorchester's  Position — 
The  British  Anticipate  the  Failure  of  the  United  States— A  Brit- 
ish Spy  in  the  Northwest  —  A  Critical  Situation  for  the  United 
States — Washington  Urges  Western  Communication — Protecting 
the  Flanks  and  the  Rear— A  Group  of  Farewells Page  279 

CHAPTLR    IX 

THE    NORTHWEST    TKOVIDED    WITH   A   GOVERNMENT 

Silas  Deane  Advises  the  Sale  of  the  Western  Land"  j  Raise  Funds  for 
the  Revolution — Maryland  Insists  that  these  Lands  Belong  to  the 
Nation— Forbids  Her  Delegates  to  Ratify  the  Articles  of  Confed- 
eration— The  Basis  of  Maryland's  Complaint — Virginia  Establishes 
a  Land-office — Congress  Asks  the  State  to  Suspend  Land  Opera- 
tions in  the  West— Virginia  Protests  against  Maryland's  Course 
— New  York  Cede?  Her  Ciaims  to  the  Northwest  Lands— Con- 
gress Takes  Action — Connecticut  Willing  to  Cede,  with  Reserva- 
tions—Virginia's Offer  —  Maryland  Makes  Her  Point  and  Joins 
the  Confederation— The  United  States  Proclaimed  at  Home  and 
Abroad— Congress  Attempts  to  Overreach  Virginia  and  Connecti- 
cut— Loyalty  of  Virginia — Transfer  of  Her  Claims— Massachu- 
setts' Cessions— Connecticut  Secures  a  Good  Bargain— The  Moral 
of  the  Cessions— Jefferson  Plans  a  Government  for  the  Northwest 
—The  Indian  Title  of  Occupancy— The  United  States  Alone  Can 
Purchase  Lands  of  the  Indians— Courts  Organized  at  Vincennes 

xi 


CONTENTS 

and  Kaskaskia  —  The  "Custom  of  Paris"  Siill  Operative— Free- 
dom tlie  Birthright  of  tlie  Northwest— Secession  Prohibited— Jef 
fcrson's  Names  for  the  New  States — The  Government  Undertakes 
to  Survey  tlie  Western  Lands— No  "Tomahawk  Rights"  in  the 
Nortliwest— Tlie  Ordinance  of  1783— Struggles  of  Congress  witli 
the  Slavery  Question — Slave  llepreseutation  Provided  for— Opin- 
ions of  Webster,  Iloar,  and  Cooley  —  Freedom  of  Religion;  the 
Inviolability  of  Contracts  ;  a  Permanent  Union  ;  and  the  Encour- 
agement of  Education — The  Character  of  the  Western  System  of 
Public  Education — The  Moving  Force  in  Securing  the  Ordinance 
— The  Ohio  Company— Rufus  Putnam— Schemes  for  Settlements 
in  the  Northwest — Failure  of  General  Parsons — Manasseh  Cut- 
ler's Success  —Land  Laws — The  Officers  of  the  Nortlnvcst- The 
State  of  Ohio  Planned  in  a  Boston  Tavern  —  The  Settlement  of 
^[arietta — Putnam's  Discouragements — Arrival  at  the  Mouth  of 
the  JMuskingum  —  The  Town  Named  After  Marie  Antoinette — 
Pseudo  classicism  of  the  Day— Idealism  of  the  Settlers — Governor 
St.  Clair  Arrives — Sketch  of  the  New  Governor — His  Companions 
in  Office — "The  Governor  and  Judges,"  a  Vicious  Form  of  Gov- 
ernment— Patchwork  Laws — Setting  the  Courts  in  Motion — The 
Soioto  Purchase — A  Bit  of  Lobbying — Colonel  William  Duer  and 
His  Associates — French  Immigrants  at  Gallipolis — Joel  Barlow 
Sells  Lands  in  France  —  Financial  Panic  —  Comparative  Quiet  at 
Marietta — Fort  Harmar  Built  by  Major  Doughty — The  Remnant 
of  an  Army Page  315 

CHAPTER    X 

THE    UNITED    STATES    WIN   THE   NORTHWEST   TOSTS 

The  New  Boundaries  —  President  Washington  Asserts  the  Power  of 
the  United  States — Joseph  Brant  Betakes  Himself  to  Literary  Pur- 
suits— Indians  Relinquish  Lands  in  the  Northw^est — White  Settle- 
ments Make  the  Indians  Uneasy  —  Savages  Looking  Westw^ard 
— Lord  Dorchester's  Confidence— Captain  Gother  jMann  Explores 
the  Border  —  British  Preparations  to  Build  New  Posts  —  Perils 
of  the  Ohio  Passage  —  The  Indians  Burn  a  Prisoner  —  The  Har- 
mar Campaign — A  IMotley  Militia — Jealousy  and  Demoralization 
— A  Disgraceful  Defeat  —  Rufus  Putnam's  Advice  —  Dorchester 
Writes  as  to  Indian  Lands — Washington's  Chagrin — St.  Clair  Se- 
lected to  Command  the  Army — The  Forces  at  Cincinnati  —  Bad 
Clothing,  Bad  Pay,  Bad  Food— Discontent  Presages  Defeat — The 
St.  Clair  Disaster — Bravery  of  the  Regulars — St.  Clair's  Share  in 
the  Blame — After  the  Battle— Washington's  Anger — ]Mad  Anthony 
Wayne — Drilling  the  Militia — Former  Failures  Serve  as  a  Warn- 
ing—Indian Council  at  the  Mouth  of  the  Detroit— The  Indian  Ul- 

xu 


CONTENTS 

limatum— Brii  .  'i  Influence— Secn-tciry  Knox  Ortlers  the  Advance 

—  Fort  Kecovery  — Tl.e  Indian  Respect  for  a  Soldier-AVayue'a 
Successful  Campaign-Face  to  Face  wiili  the  British— The  Treaty 
of  Greenville  — John  Jay  Negotiates  a  Treaty  with  EngUmd  — 
French  and  Brilisli  Spoliations  — Jay's  Treaty  Attacked  — New 
Connecticut— The  Surrender  of  Detroit  Demanded  and  Refusal 
—Lord  Dorchester  Issues  Orders  for  the  Surrender  of  the  PofU 

—  Washington  Congratulated  on  Gaining  the  Northwest  — F(rt 
Miami  Given  Up  to  Ilamtrarack— Captain  ]Moses  Porter  Receives 
the  Surrender  of  Detroit— 3Iichilimackiuac  Evacuated  -Compii- 
ments  to  the  Retiring  British  Officers— Fort  Niagara  Ocn;pied 
by  the  Americans- Jolin  Francis  Ilamtramck  at  Detroit— General 
Wayne  Visits  the  Posts— His  Death  at  Pre^que  Isle— Condition  of 
Posts— The  Advantageous  Position  of  the  British— Wnruings  of 
Coming  War— Retrospect X^a^^e  845 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


■9C' 


'{  FATHER  MAUQUETTE  IN  ST.  IGNACE    ........     Frontispiece 

JACQUES  CARTIER Facing  p.  2 

f  THE  MISSIONARY "  4 

^  THE  NORTH  SHORE,   LAKE  SUrEKIOR **  8 

i  GRAND  ARCH,  PICTURED  ROCKS,  LAKE   SUPERIOR        .      .  "  14 

1 

1  JAMES  MARQUETTE,  S.  J *•  23 

M  [From  Trentimove's  statue  in  the  Capitol  at  Washiugtou] 

.J  SLEERINO  BEA.i **  26 

'^ROBERT  CAVELIER,   SIEUR  DE  LA   SALLE **  80 

1  [From  a  copper-plate  by  Tan  Uer  Gucbt  (1G98).    A  purely  ideal 


•% 


■'■•Sf 


portrait] 


NAKED  INDIANS  IN  MONTREAL *'  42 

.THE  LANDING  OF  CADILLAC **  4G 

COUREUR  DE  B0I3 **  53 

HTDIAN  HUNTER  OF  1750 '•  60 

SEBASTIAN  CABOT *•  C4 

LAWRENCE  WASHINGTON **  68 

WASHINGTON  AS  A  SURVEYOR «'  73 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON **  84 

BRADDOCK'S  HEADQUARTERS  AT   ALEXANDRIA,  VA.      .      .  **  93 

GENERAL  EDWARD  BRADDOCK "  94 

THE  BURIAL  OP  BRADDOCK •«  98 

BLOCK-HOUSE  OF  FORT   DUQUESNE "  IQO 

GENERAL  HENRY  GLADWIN     . **  HO 

MRS.  HENRY  GLADWIN **  Hg 

THE  BAFFLED  CHIEFS  LEAVING  THE  FORT '•  113 

ANOTHER    PARTY    PADDLED    SWIFTLY    TO    THE    ISLE 

AU  COCHON" "  120 

X7 


<( 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE  SIEGE  OF  THE  FORT  AT  DETROIT     .      .      . 

A   LICnT-IXFANTUY   SOLDIER   OF   THE  PERIOD  .      , 

BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

A   FRENCH   TRADER    

DANIEL  BOONE 

SIMON  KENTON , 

EDMUND  r.URKE 

GRAVE  OF   DANIEL   BOONE        ........ 

GEORGE   ROGERS  CLARK       .      .      .      .      .      .      .      . 

PATRICK   HENRY , 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

OLD  SPANISH  TOWER 

ARENT  SCHUYLER  DE  PEYSTER 

JOHN  ADAMS     

LORD  SIIELBURNE 

HENRY  LAURENS  ...  , 

A  FUR-TRADER  IN  THE  COUNCIL  TEPEE.      .      .      , 

THE   COUREUR  DE   BOIS  AND  THE  SAVAGE    .       .      , 

BIR  GUY  CARLETON 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

RUFUS  PUTNAM ,  ,  „,^ 

330 
GENERAL  RUFUS  PUTNAM'S  LAND-OFFICE 

MANASSEH  CUTLER 

GENERAL   ARTHUR   ST.  CLAIR 

SITE  OP   MARIETTA  IN   1783 

FORT  IIARMAR,   BUILT   IN   1783 } 

CAMP  MARTIUS,  THE  FIRST  HOME  OF  THE  PIONEERS     .  J 

PLANTING  IN  THE  NORTHWEST  TERRITORY       .... 

ST.  CLAIR'S  ADVANCE  DISCOVERED 

ANTHONY  WAYNE       

DRAWING-ROOM,   WAYNE  HOMESTEAD 

WAYNE  HOMESTEAD 

JOHN  JAY 

GENERAL  W^AYNE'S  GRAVE   .   .       

xvi 


Facinff  p 

.  124 

132 

142 

104 

184 

192 

202 

210 

216 

213 

240 

253 

2G4 

282 

284 

288 

292 

296 

302 

310 

334 

336 

338 

340 

344 

354 

358 

362 

360 

368 

380 

ILLUSTRATIONS 


M  A  P  S 


moll's  map  of  the  KOllTirv.EST  IN  1720 Facing  p.     33 

MAP  OF  THE   :^'OKTIIWEST  AS  KNOWN  TO  THE  ENGLISH 

IN   1T55-G3 

FRENCH   AND  ENGLISH   IN  NOllTII  AMEMCA.  r55  .      .      . 

EVANS'S  MAP   OF  THE  ILLINOIS  COUNTRY 

MAP    TO    ILLUSTRATE     THE    IIARMAR,    ST.    CLAIR,    AND 

WAYNE  CAMPAIGNS "  340 


80 
103 

••       168 


INTRODUCTION 


France  discovered  and  occupied  lie  Xorthwest;  but 
England  included  that  region  bet^  m  the  infinite  par- 
allels bounding  on  the  north  and  '^outli  the  colonies 
of  Virginia,  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut.  It  was  not 
until  a  full  century  after  France  had  established  her 
trade  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Mississippi  that  the 
English  colonies,  as  their  population  increased,  began  to 
plan  the  occupation  of  the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  Virginia, 
having  crossed  the  AUeghanies,  came  into  collision  with 
France,  and  was  driven  back.  England  took  up  the 
quarrel  on  behalf  of  her  colonial  rights;  and  at  the  end 
of  the  French  and  Indian  War,  Xew  France — the  pictu- 
resque, romantic,  extravagant,  squalid  New  France — dis- 
appeared from  the  map  of  Xorth  America.  Next,  Eng- 
land undertook  to  keep  her  own  subjects  from  settling 
and  civilizing  the  JS'orthwest ;  and  for  the  annihilation 
of  the  British  posts,  the  occupants  of  that  country  en- 
tered into  the  most  far-reaching  and  destructive  Indian 
conspiracy  known  to  this  land.  Xo  sooner  were  the 
savages  subdued  than  the  War  of  the  Eevolution  led  to 
the  conquest  of  the  Northwest  by  Virginia,  and  during 
eight  years  petty  warfare  was  carried  on  by  the  Ind- 
ians and  British  against  the  Americans.  Maryland 
conditioned  her  entrance  into  the  confederation  of  the 


XIX 


INTRODUCTION 

States  upon  the  cession  to  the  general  government  of 
tlie  claims  of  the  individual  colonies  to  the  Northwestern 
lands ;  and  the  makers  of  the  treaty  of  1783  succeeded 
in  drawing  the  boundary-lines  of  the  new  nation  through 
the  middle  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  of  the  Mississippi. 
Then  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  gave  to  this 
first  territorial  expansion  of  the  nation  a  charter  of  free- 
dom and  progress  never  before  equalled  among  men ; 
and  under  this  Ordinance  of  1787,  New  England  men 
and  ideas  became  the  dominating  force  from  the  Ohio  to 
Lake  lu'ie.  The  advent  of  settlers  brought  about  Lidian 
wars,  fought  by  the  United  States  against  savages  fed, 
clothed,  and  armed  by  England,  that  nation  having,  for 
the  purposes  of  its  fur-trade,  made  excuse  to  retain  the 
Northwestern  posts.  Under  the  provisions  of  the  treaty 
of  1795,  however,  the  posts  were  surrendered,  and  Great 
Britain  retired  across  the  border,  there  to  nurse  griev- 
ances that  were  to  find  vent  in  the  "War  of  1812. 

AVe  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  the  Northwest  as 
a  wilderness  that  grew  into  civilization  by  some  vital 
force  within  itself.  Such,  however,  was  far  from  being 
the  case.  The  name  of  Michilimackinac  was  a  familiar 
word  in  the  cabinets  of  European  monarchs  before  it 
was  known  to  the  people  dwelling  along  the  Atlantic; 
the  foundation  of  Detroit  was  decreed  in  the  councils  of 
France ;  and  the  relations  of  the  Jesuit  missions  in  the 
Northwest  were  read  eagerly  even  by  the  polite  society 
of  Paris.  England,  indeed,  was  comparatively  ignorant 
of  the  Western  count rj^ ;  but  Spain  was  not  without  am- 
bition to  control  its  waterwavs. 

In  our  own  land,  the  makers  of  theEepublic  were  also 
the  makers  of  the  North v/est.  In  its  defence  AVashing- 
ton  first  learned  the  art  of  war ;  Franklin  realized  its 
possibilities,  and  interested  himself  in  its  development; 

XX 


INTUODUCTION 

Patrick  Henry  planned  with  Georgo  Rogers  Clark  for 
its  conquest ;  John  Jay  and  Franklin  and  John  Adams 
drew  about  it  the  lines  of  the  United  States;  Tiionias 
Jefferson  bestowed  upon  it  the  inestimable  boon  of  free- 
d(jm;  Washington's  chief  of  engineers  led  its  lirst  set- 
tiers;  and  Mad  Anthony  Wayne  subdued  its  savage  in- 
iiabitants,  and  received  the  surrender  of  its  frontier 
posts. 

^Many  races  united  to  people  and  to  build  up  the 
Northwest;  and  many  interests  were  in  conflict.  The 
story  is  often  one  of  warfare,  of  cruelty,  and  of  barbar- 
ism;  but  in  writing  it  care  has  been  taken  to  attribute 
no  motives  that  were  not  clearly  indicated.  If  it  sliall 
seem  that  the  traditional  hostility  to  En^^land  had  been 
departed  from,  the  excuse  must  be  that  during  the  period 
under  onsideration  the  representatives  of  that  nation 
acted  iilong  the  general  lines  of  human  nature ;  and  that 
the  British  governors  and  commandants,  as  a  rule,  were 
men  of  good  ability,  devoted  to  the  interests  of  their 
government ;  and  not  infrequently  they  did  all  they 
could  to  mitigate  the  barbarities  of  savage  warfare. 
There  were  cruelties  perpetrated  on  both  sides;  but 
the  British  government  was  to  blame  for  ever  employ- 
ing or  even  countenancing  the  use  of  savages  in  war- 
fare against  the  whites. 

The  fact  that  England  was  in  possession  of  the  North- 
west during  the  greater  portion  of  the  period  under 
consideration,  makes  it  necessary  to  have  recourse  to 
the  archives  and  other  records  of  that  nation.  The 
Bouquet  and  Ilaldimand  papers,  in  so  far  as  they  relate 
to  the  Western  country,  have  been  printed  in  full  in 
the  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  and 
all  these  papers  have  been  calendared  in  the  Canadian 
Archives  under  the  efficient  direction  of  Mr.  Doudas 

o 
xxi 


INTUUDUCTION 

llrviiincr.  Tlio  later  archives  also  have  been  calendared, 
and  important  portions  of  them  have  been  printed. 

A  year  before  his  death  the  late  Francis  Parkinan 
gave  nie  j»erinission  to  consult  his  uni(jiie  collection  of 
manuscripts  now  in  the  library  of  the  Arassaclmsetts 
Historical  Society  ;  and  through  the  courtesy  of  tlie 
secretary,  Dr.  S.  A.  Greene,  I  have  frequently  availed 
myself  of  the  privilege. 

The  descendants  of  General  Tlenry  Gladwin — the  "Rev- 
erend Henry  Gladwin  Jebb,  of  Firbeek  Hall,  Rothcr- 
liani,  Yorkshire;  K.  1).  do  Uphaugh,  Esij.,  of  Holling- 
bourne  House;  and  the  late  Captain  W.  H.  G.  Gladwin, 
of  Hinchley  Wood,  Ashbourne,  Derbyshire,  England — 
have  placed  mo  under  obligations  by  sending  manu- 
script records,  letters,  and  also  portraits  of  General  and 
Mrs.  Gladwin.  To  Senator  James  McMillan  I  am  in- 
debted for  frequent  courtesies  in  obtaining  information 
from  official  sourccr.  both  in  this  country  and  abroad. 
It  is  a  pleasure  to  acknowledge  repeated  acts  of  kind- 
ness on  the  part  of  Mr.  David  Hutcheson  and  of  Dr. 
Herbert  Friedenwald,  of  the  Library  of  Congress,  in 
placing  at  my  disposal  the  rare  documents  and  manu- 
scripts in  their  respective  departments ;  and  also  the 
constant  courtesy  of  Mr.  Andre\v  Ilussey  Allen  and  Mr. 
Stanislaus  M.  Hamilton,  of  the  Department  of  State,  in 
facilitating  my  researches  among  the  Department  man- 
uscripts. General  F.  C.  Ainsworth,  U.  S.  A.,  had  made 
for  me  copies  of  documents  in  the  "War  Department; 
and  I  am  indebted  to  him  particularly  for  the  diligent 
search  that  disclosed  how  great  a  destruction  of  official 
papers  resulted  from  the  burning  of  the  public  buildings 
in  Washington  by  the  British  during  the  War  of  1S12. 
General  A.  W.  Greeley,  F.  S.  A.,  also  placed  at  my  dis- 
posal the  valuable  collections  of  rare  documents  which 

xxii 


INTRODUCTION 

Jie  is  f^.'itlierinf,'  for  the  library  of  tho  War  Department. 
Mr,  Chirence  M.  Burton,  of  Detroit,  whoso  collection  of 
original  docinnents  relating  to  tho  Northwest  is  un- 
rivalled, aiul  Mr.  L.  (x  Stuart,  of  (Jrand  Kapids,  have 
alforded  every  assistance  in  their  power. 

Charles  Moore. 
Wasiiikgton.  D.C,  Noumbcr  17,  1899. 


THE  NORTHWEST  UXDER  THREE  FLAGS 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  FRENCH  OCCUPY  THE  NORTHWEST 

From  the  meagre  records  of  the  intrepid  fur- trader 
and  the  incidental  allusions  of  the  devoted  missionary, 
one  with  difficulty  pieces  together  the  narrative  of  dis- 
covery alono:  the  Great  Lakes.  Often  one  catches 
glimpses  of  shadowy  forms  gliding  among  the  whisper- 
ing pines,  or  sees  afar  off  a  swift  darting  canoe  skim- 
mino^  over  the  clear  waters,  only  to  find  that  the  name 
of  the  daring  trader  who  has  pushed  into  unknown 
regions  has  disappeared  as  completely  as  the  print  of 
his  snow^-shoe  or  the  swirl  of  his  paddle.  Thus  it  hap- 
pens that  the  reputed  explorers  of  the  Northwest  were 
not  always  the  first  who  spied  out  the  land ;  but  rather 
were  those  who  were  so  fortunate  as  to  leave  some 
record  of  their  adventures,  either  in  the  obscure  and 
confused  account^-  written  by  the  unlettered  explorers 
themselves,  or  else  in  the  scarcely  less  uncertain  rela- 
tions of  the  state  of  the  Church,  compiled  from  letters 
and  stray  reports  from  those  distant  fields  w4iere  the 
triumphs  of  the  cross  in  the  conversion  of  the  heathen 
seemed  of  far  more  moment  than  the  discover}^  of  new 
countries. 

A  1 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

It  was  in  the  year  1534  that  Jacques  Cartier,  driv- 
ing his  little  fleet  through  the  fogs  of  Newfoundland, 
steered  up  the  unknown  waters  of  the  broad  St.  Law- 
rence. Eighty -one  years  later — so  slow  was  progress 
westward — Cham])lain,  the  father  of  New  France,  was 
the  lirst  white  man  to  look  off  across  the  dancing  wa- 
ters of  Lake  Huron.  By  his  side  stood  his  interpreter 
fitienne  Brule,  dauntless  woodsman  and  pioneer  of  pio- 
neers, as  Parkman  calls  him.'  We  know  that  in  the 
three  years  between  the  discovery  of  Lake  Huron  and 
1G18,  Brule's  w^anderings  took  him  down  the  Susque- 
hanna to  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  that  he  was  the  first 
to  make  that  passage.  Perhaps,  also,  his  fleet  canoe 
pushed  its  way  northward  even  to  Lake  Superior.  Be 
this  as  it  mav,  he  learned  enoun^h  of  that  sea  to  tell  the 
historian  priest  Sagard  that  beyond  th^  Mer  Douce 
(Lake  Huron)  there  was  another  and  ;  greater  lake, 
which  discharges  itself  into  the  lower  one  by  rapids 
nearly  two  miles  broad,  called  the  Falls  of  Gaston;' 
and  that  from  the  Mer  Douce  to  the  farther  end  of  the 
great  lake  was  four  hundred  leagues."  Moreover,  Brule 
showed  to  Sagard  an  ingot  of  copper,  which,  he  said, 
came  from  a  deposit  of  that  metal  some  eighty  or  one 
hundred  leagues  from  the  country  of  the  Hurons. 
Brule  did  not  profess  to  have  found  this  copper,  but 
said  he  obtained  it  from  neighbors  of  the  Hurons,  when 
he  and  his  companion  Grenolle  were  on  their  travels.* 

W^hatever  may  be  Brule's  claims  as  a  discoverer  in 

'  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World,  p.  368,  377-380. 

'  Named  for  a  brother  of  Louis  XIH. 

'  French  estimates  of  distances  almost  invariably  are  exaggerated. 

*  Sagard,  Ilistoire  du  Canada^  Paris  edition,  1865,  vol.  iii.,  p.  717. 
See  also  Narrative  and  Critical  Ilistory  of  America,  vol.  iv.,  p.  165  ; 
and  Winsor's  Cartier  to  Frontenac,  p.  123. 

2 


JAC^rKS   CAItTIKH 


THE    FUENCll    OCCUIM'    THK    NoiiTIIWKST 

the  Northwest,  we  know  tlint,  dnrini,^  the  same  year 
(1018)  that  he  returned  from  his  wancU'rings,  there  land- 
ed at  Quel)ec  the  son  of  a  Normandy  letter-carrier  who 
was  destined  to  traverse  western  seas  where  no  white 
man  had  been  before  him  and  where  none  eame  after 
him  for  a  fjuarter  of  a  century.  Jean  Nicolet,  a  native 
of  Cherbourg,  was,  like  Brule,  a  protege  of  Champlain. 
Following  the  custom  of  the  time,  the  youth  was  sent 
to  AUumette  Island  in  the  Ottawa,  there  to  studv  Ind- 
ian  languages  and  thus  prepare  himself  for  the  work 
of  an  interpreter.'  For  sixteen  years  Nicolet  served 
Ills  apprenticeship  among  the  Jesuit  missions  in  the 
Huron  countr\  and  during  the  years  (1620-32)  that 
(Quebec  was  temporarily  in  possession  of  the  British, 
he  was  sojourning  at  Lake  Ni pissing,  where  his  happy 
disposition,  his  excellent  memory,  and  his  profoundly 
I'eliirious  nature  all  combined  to  establish  for  liim  a 
wide-spread  influence  over  the  Algonquin  Indians.  He 
nuide  their  ways  his  ways;  he  feasted  with  them  in  the 
days  of  their  plenty,  and  he  fasted  with  them  during 
long  weeks  when  roots  and  berries  were  their  only  food. 
It  was  not  strange,  therefore,  that  Cham])lain,  on  his 
return  to  Quebec  in  1033,  sent  for  Nicolet,  and  bade 
him  prepare  to  undertake  an  embassy  to  the  Indians  be- 
yond the  Mer  Douce,  in  order  to  induce  them  to  join  the 
Ilurons  in  their  annual  voyages  for  traffic  at  Quebec. 
Doubtless  this  expedition  was  undertaken  in  the  interest 
of  the  One  Hundred  Associates,  that  powerful  monopoly 
which  had  been  organized  in  1627  to  control  the  fur-trade 
of  New  France.  On  the  first  day  of  July,  1634,  Nicolet 
started  from  Quebec,  ir       npany  with  the  burly  priest 


'  Benj.  Suite,  Melanges  d'llistoirc  et  de  Litterature,  Ottawa,  1876. 
Also  Wiaconsiii  Hitttorical  Colle^tiom,  1879. 

3 


THE  NORTHWEST  rXDER  THREE  KLAOS 

Breboc'uf,'  who  wiis  bound  for  the  Ilui'on  mission.  Seat 
ed  in  the  canoes  of  the  Indians  who  were  returninfj 
from  their  annual  market,  voya<3'eur  and  priest  made 
the  hard  and  tedious  journey  up  the  Ottau^a  and  tlie 
chain  of  lakes  and  streams  that  in  those  days  formed 
the  wilderness  route  to  the  country  and  the  lake  of  the 
Ilurons.  Leaving  Breba'uf  at  the  mission,  Nicolet, 
with  seven  savages  as  boatmen,  pushed  northward,  fol- 
lowing: the  curve  of  the  shores  until  his  li^i^ht  bark 
paused  at  the  foot  of  the  rapids  of  the  strait  that  dis- 
charges the  waters  of  Lake  Superior.  Returning,  he 
passed  through  the  Straits  of  Mackinac  and  was  tossed 
on  the  billows  of  Lake  Michigan. 

During  the  hazy  September  days  Xicolet  and  his 
dusky  companions  skimmed  over  the  glassy  surface  of  the 
great  lake  that  he  had  discovered,  and  at  night  camp 
w^as  made  on  some  jutting  point  with  the  thick  forest  at 
their  backs,  by  way  of  security  against  sudden  attack. 
Before  snow^  fell  the  little  company  reached  Green  Bay, 
a  body  of  water  for  manv  vears  thereafter  known  as  the 
Lake  of  the  Stinkards,*'  the  name  mistakenly  applied 
by  the  French  to  the  Indians  who  dwelt  near  its  shores. 

Nicolet,  w^ell  knowing  the  Indian  love  of  finery,'  had 

'  Fathers  Jeau  de  Breba'uf  and  Gabriel  Lalemant  were  burned 
alive  by  the  Iroquois,  at  the  destruction  of  St.  Ignace  in  the  Huron 
country,  March  16,  1649.  For  a  detailed  account  of  their  martyrdom 
see  Canadian  Arcldces,  1884,  p.  Ixvii, 

'^  *' The  people  of  the  sea''  was  the  more  correct  name.  The  phrase 
had  its  origin  in  the  ill-smelling  water,  supposed  by  the  French  to  be 
the  salt  water  of  the  sea. 

^  Parivinan  conjectures  that  Nicolet  may  have  provided  himself 
with  a  court  dress  for  use  in  case  he  should  penetrate  to  regions  where 
Chinese  mandarins  were  domiciled.  Later  writers  have  not  always 
been  careful  to  observe  Parkman's  "  perhaps."  ]\Iy  statement  is  less 
poetic,  but  certainly  is  within  the  bounds  of  probability.  See  La 
Salle  and  the  Discoveiy  of  the  Great  West,  p.  xxiv. 

4 


-< 


r 


TlIK    FKKNCH    OCCUPY    THE    NORTHWEST 

provided  himself  with  a  robe  of  Chinese  silk  ^^lyly 
wrought  with  flowers  and  birds  of  brilliant  j)luinage. 
Arrayed  in  this  fantastic  garment  and  firing  ])istols  to 
riglit  and  to  left  of  him,  tiie  (hiring  explorer  seemed  to 
the  amazed  Indians  a  veritable  Son  f)f  Thunder;  and 
they,  in  their  turn,  decked  themselves  in  their  richest 
furs  to  welcome  so  illustrious  an  ambassador.'  The 
shrewd  eyes  of  the  representative  of  the  fur-trade  quick- 
ly told  him  that  here  was  a  people  worthy  of  cultiva- 
tion;  and  he  neglected  no  opportunity  to  impress  upon 
his  attentive  hosts  the  glories  of  France,  the  favor  that 
the  king  was  ready  to  bestow  upcm  his  red  children,  and 
the  allurements  of  the  St.  Lawrence  markets.  In  order 
to  establish  his  hold  upon  them,  he  made  his  way  up 
the  Fox  River  to  the  land  of  the  brave  Mascoutins ;  and 
from  the  reports  of  the  Indians  he  believed  that  he  was 
then  but  three  days'  journey  from  the  margin  of  the  sea 
that  separated  the  Xew  World  from  Cathay,  for  more 
than  a  century  the  goal  of  all  French  adventurers  in 
\  America.  Had  he  ventured  on,  he  must  have  reached 
I  not  the  ocean  but  the  Mississippi,  that  great  river  the 
discovery  of  which  was  soon  to  fill  the  dreams  alike  of 
trader  and  of  missionarv.  Satisfied  with  his  achievements, 
however,  he  retraced  his  way,  and  in  the  spring  of  1035 
he  descended  the  St.  Lawrence  at  the  head  of  a  richlv 
laden  fleet  of  canoes.  For  six  yeai*s  he  continued  to 
dwell  at  the  frontier  post  of  Three  Rivers.  Marrying  a 
god-daughter  of  Champlain,  he  relapsed  into  quiet  joys  of 
family  life;  and  his  acquaintance  with  the  remote  tribes 
and  his  unbounded  popularity  with  the  Indians  were  of 
decided  advantage  to  his  employers.  In  ir>39  he  went 
down  to  Quebec  to  be  present  at  the  marriage  of  his 

'  Vimont,  Iklotuni  of  1643,  p.  3. 


TIIK    NOKTIIWKST    TMH:!:    TIlltKK    FLAGS 

friend,  the  wagon-ninkcr  Joliet,  wliose  son  was  destined 
to  place  his  nanie  first  anion <^  French  exphjrers.  The 
same  year  (1042)  tiiat  saw  the  birth  of  I.ouis  Joliet  also 
witnessed  the  death  of  Nicolet,  who  was  ch'owncd  in 
the  St.  Lawrence  while  return in<^^  from  (Quebec,  whither 
he  went  to  save  an  Ii'ocjuois  piisoncr  from  the  toi'ture 
stake.  He  died  as  he  had  lived,  a  devoted  son  of  the 
Church;  and  a  fervent  obituary  notice  in  the  Relation 

ft/ 

of  the  succeeding  year  bears  witness  to  the  high  esteem 
in  which  he  was  lield  by  the  fathers,  wlio  as  a  rule  liad 
Httle  cause  to  speak  well  of  a  fur-trader.' 

AV^e  turn  now  for  a  moment  to  a  missionary  enter- 
j)rise  which,  while  it  was  indeed  the  voice  of  one  crying 
in  the  wiklerness,  nevertheless  fixed  for  all  time  the 
njime  of  a  ])lace  and  of  a  great  river.  Six  years  (1641) 
after  the  adventurous  voyage  of  Kicolet,  the  two 
priests,  Charles  Kayml)ault  and  Isaac  Jogues,  accepted 
an  invitation  to  accompany  a  party  of  Ojibwas  on  their 
return  from  the  feast  of  the  dead,  which  had  been  cele- 
brated in  the  Huron  country  with  all  the  pomp  and  cir- 
cumstance that  marked  this  as  the  most  important  of 
all  the  ceremonials  of  that  nation.'  Skirting  the  north- 
ern shores  of  Lake  Huron,  the  quivering  canoes  were 
forced  u])  the  broad  strait  through  which  Lake  Superior 
finds  its  outlet.  Something  of  the  solemn  grandeur  of 
this  mighty  stream  must  have  impressed  itself  upon  the 
minds  of  the  priests  as  they  gazed  upon  the  multitude 

'  Vimont,  Relation  of  1643,  p.  3.  In  vol.  xi.  of  these  most  excel- 
lent publications  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society  will  be  found 
Henri  .Jouan's  article  on  Nicolet,  translated  by  Grace  Clark.  This  is 
followed  by  a  Nicolet  bibliography  by  Consul  Willsbire  Butterfield. 

2  Relation  of  104'^,  p.  97.  See  also  Shea's  Catholic  Church  in  Colo- 
nial Days,  vol.  i.,  p.  228.  For  a  map  and  description  of  the  Huron 
country,  by  Rev.  Arthur  E.  Jones,  S.  J.,  see  The  JesnitH'  Relatiohf* 
and  Allied  Documents,  edited  by  lieuben  Gold  Thwaites,  vol.  xxxiv. 

6 


tin:  FiiKNCii  occurv  Tin:  nokthwhst 

of  ishiiuls  whose  ra«,^ged  rocks  nature  was  strugglin«r  to 
hide  under  an  all  too  scanty  covering  of  green.  Now 
great  liills  seemed  completely  to  block  the  way;  then, 
with  a  sharp  bend,  the  j)ath  would  open  stniight  before 
them  as  the  river  sjncad  ilsrlf  out  in  a  shallow  lake 
whose  red  bottom  showed  itself  plainl}  through  the 
clear  waters. 

From  the  shores  the  autumn  air,  laden  with  the  fra- 
grance of  spruce,  cauie  like  wine,  bringing  an  exaltation 
to  the  senses.  To  the  minds  of  the  missionaries  the 
ruf^^'cd  hills,  nine-clad  save  here  aiul  there  where  a  bald 
spot  showed  itself,  and  the  deep,  lonesome  valleys  must 
have  presented  a  decided  contrast  to  the  carefully  tend- 
ed slopes  of  their  native  France.  Here  was  indeed  the 
Xew  Woild.  And  yet  those  rounded  knobs  of  rock 
standing  wrll  back  from  the  left  bank  of  the  river  were 
to  this  earth  what  Adam  was  to  the  race.  Before  ever 
the  waters  had  parted  to  let  the  dry  land  of  the  Old 
World  appear,  these  Laurent ian  hills  had  lifted  them- 
selves up  to  form  the  backbone  of  what  we  call  the 
New  AVorld.  Another  bend  and  the  hills  melt  away; 
low  blurts  of  clay  easily  confine  the  now  quiet  river,  and 
the  broad  terraces  are  covered  with  waving  grass  and 
pleasing  groves.  Nature  has  changed  her  frown  to  the 
brightest  of  smiles,  and  far  ahead  the  river  breaks  into 
laughter,  showing  its  milk-\vhite  teeth  in  foaming  rapids. 

Scattered  over  the  sandy  plateau  beside  the  rush  of 
waters  were  the  huts  of  some  two  thousand  Ojibwas 
and  other  Algoiupiins,  allured  thither  by  the  white-fish 
that  had  their  homes  in  pools  behind  the  foam-making 
rocks.  AVillingly  the  curious  savages  listened  to  the 
new  docrines  of  the  black-go w^ns ;  but  when  the  time 
for  their  departure  came,  they  bade  no  reluctant  fare- 
well to  the  priests.     As  the  ice  began  to  form  the  mis- 

1 


TIIK    NoKTIIWKST    T  .V  h  K  II   T  II  U  K  K    FLAGS 

sionaries  set  out  on  tlieir  i-otiirii  j()urn<\v— Tlaynibault 
*roin^  to  a  speedy  death  at  (^uchec,'  and  Jogiies  iniwit- 
tingly  entering  the  path  that  five  years  hiter  led  to 
inartvrdoni  on  the  l)anlvs  of  the  Mohawk.'  Thev  left 
behind  thrni  only  tlie  name  St.  Mary's,  calhng  the  place 
of  thiiir  sojourn,  as  um'U  as  the  falls  ami  the  river,  after 
the  Huron  mission  whence  thev  came.' 

The  warfare  that  numbered  Jogues  among  its  victims 
was  waged  by  the  Iroquois  with  such  stealth,  such 
ferocity,  and  such  far-reaching  effects  as  to  change  the 
face  of  the  Indian  world.  Fn^m  (Quebec  to  Lake  Huron 
the  Indian  towns  were  burned  and  their  inhabitants 
were  ilriven  even  to  the  Mississippi,  before  they  found 
.t  rest  for  the  soles  of  their  weary  feet.  Then,  too, 
pestilence  added  its  ravages  to  the  scourge  of  the  relent- 
less Iroquois.  One  by  one  the  Jesuit  missions  in  the 
Huron  countrv  succumbed  to  the  onslau<'hts  of  the 
combined  foes.*  St.  Joseph,  St.  Ignace,  Ste.  Marie,  all 
fell  to  rise  again  beyond  Lake  Huron;  and  by  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  all  that  great  stretch 
of  countrv  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Straits  of  Mack- 
inac  was  debatable  territory,  traversed  alike  by  white 
man  and  red  onlv  at  the  constant  risk  of  ambush  and 
battle.*  Had  the  French  possessed  the  numerical  strength 
of  the  Enirlish  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  thev  mi^jht  easilv 
have  anniiiilated  the  Inxjuois;  but  in  the  year  1^43  the 
entire  population  of  New  France  numbered  not  to  ex- 
ceed three  iiundred  souls;  whereas  the  four  colonies  of 
Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven, 

'  Not  at  SauU  Ste.  Mario,  as  Winsor  has  it.     See  Cartier  to  Fron- 
fennc,  p.  160.  '•  Parkniiin,  Jesuits  in  North  America, \\.  304, 

^Relation  </1642. 

*  P:uk!n:ui.  The  Jesuits  in  North  America,  p.  411,  ct  seq. 
'  Hadisson's  Voyoges,  p.  88. 

8 


THE  NORTH  SHORE,  LAKE  SlI'KRIOR 


Till::    FUENCII    UCCUl'V    THE     NOUTIIWKST 

banded  tof^ether  for  self defcnco,  could  count  a  popula- 
tion of  24,000.  Tliirty-two  years  later  tlie  Indian  pr<jl> 
loin  had  been  settled  for  New  Eno;land  by  the  slaughter, 
in  the  battle  that  ended  King  Philip's  War,  of  as  many 
Indians  as  the  Iroquois  ever  had  on  th(;  war-path;'  but 
for  New  Fra  ice  Indian  warfai'e  had  only  fairly  begun. 

Naturally  the  rout  of  the  lluruiis  put  a  stop  for  the 
time  being  to  western  (exploration ;  so  that  it  was  not 
until  1657  that  the  work  laid  down  by  Nicolet  was 
takt'u  up  l)y  two  of  his  compati-iots,  who  like  himself 
were  residents  of  the  trading  ])ost  of  Three  Hi  vers.  In 
1041  Mc'dard  Chouart,'  sixteen  years  old,  cmniui^  from 
Brie,  in  France,  had  proceeded  to  the  Jesuit  missions  of 
Lake  Huron,  where  lie  became  a  lay  assistant  to  the 
fathers.  Later  he  served  both  as  a  soldier  and  as  a  pilot ; 
and  he  possessed,  or  was  possessed  by,  the  commercial 
instinct.  A  born  trader,  he  so  far  succeeded  chat  by 
the  time  he  was  twenty-six  he  owned  enough  land  to 
assume  and  to  maintain  the  title  bv  which  he  is  known 
to  fame,  that  of  Sieur  des  Grosseilliers."     The  death  of 

'  Fiske's  Begi'nninr/s  of  New  England,  p.  225. 

'^  For  a  sketch  by  Grosseilliers,  see  The  Jesuit  RelationH  and  Allied 
Documents,  vol.  xxviii.,  p.  319. 

'  The  narnitioii  of  the  adventures  of  Des  Gros.seilliers  and  Radi.ssoa 
is  to  be  found  in  "Voyages  of  Peter  Esprit  Radisson,  beini,^  an  account 
of  his  travels  and  experiences  among  the  North  American  Indians 
from  1652  to  1C84.  Transcribed  from  the  original  manuscripts  in  the 
Bodleian  Library  and  the  British  Museum.  With  historical  illustra- 
tions and  an  introduction  by  Gideon  D.  Scull,  England.  Boston: 
Published  by  the  Prince  Society.  1885."  But  250  copies  were  print- 
ed. The  manuscript,  written  by  Radisson  in  semi  Knglish,  evidently 
is  made  up  in  parr,  from  notes  jotted  down  during  his  travels  and 
partly  from  memory.  The  compilation  was  made  during  his  voyage 
to  England  in  16G5,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  intended  for  u.se  at  the 
Knglish  court  accounts  for  that  language.  Radisson  had  learned  Eng- 
lish during  a  visit  to  London  in  early  youth. 

9 


THE    xXUUTIIWEST    UNDER    TllUEE    FLAGS 

Nicolet  in  1G42  must  have  revived  in  the  conversations 
of  the  priests,  as  it  did  in  the  Rdatlon  of  their  Superior, 
the  story  of  his  exploits;  and  during  his  stay  in  the 
Huron  countrv  Des  (rrosseilliers  must  have  f^ained  a 
oreneral  knowledo^e  of  the  St.  Marv's  Riv^er  as  well  as  of 
the  upper  portions  of  Lakes  Huron  and  Michigan. 

Among  the  traders  at  Three  Hi  vers  appeared,  in  May, 
1651,  Peter  Esprit  Radisson,  frf)m  St.  Malo ;  and  before 
the  youth  had  become  accustomed  to  his  ne^v  surround- 
ings he  was  captured  by  the  Iroquois,  during  one  of  t  eir 
daring  raids  on  the  French  outpost.'  Adopted  by  an 
Iroquois  chief,  Radisson  was  taken  to  Fort  Orange 
(Albany)  on  a  peace  expedition  ;  and  afterwards,  escap- 
ing from  his  cjjptors,  he  returned  to  the  Dutch,  who 
sent  him  to  Holland,  whence,  in  1651,  he  made  his  way 
hack  to  Xew  France.  Three  years  later  he  volunteered 
to  go  with  other  Frenchmen  to  the  ill-fated  mission  at 
Onondaga,  where  he  remained  until  that  canton  was 
ab'ndoned  on  March  20,  1658.  Returning  to  Three 
Rivers,  Radisson  found  there  his  brother-in-law,^  Des 
Grosseilliers,  who  had  but  recently  returned  from  an  ex- 
pedition to  the  Huron  country,  and  who  was  eager  to 
explore  the  great  lakes,  of  which  he  had  heard  so  much 
from  the  Indians.  Xo  sooner  was  the  project  explained 
to  Radisson  than  he  ''  longed  to  see  himself  in  a  boat." 
A  large  party  was  organized,  and  in  June  they  started 

'  Radisson  was  captured  while  hunting,  and  during  his  life  among 
the  Iroquois  he  became  much  attached  to  his  foster  mother,  sisters,  and 
brother.  His  narrative  of  his  capture,  his  escape,  recapture  and  re- 
turn to  tlie  L'oquois  village,  and  his  final  successful  desertion  shows 
how  readily  a  Frenchman  took  to  savage  life. 

*  Des  Grosseilliers's  tirst  wife  was  flelene,  a  daughter  of  that  Abra- 
ham Martin  for  whom  the  Plains  of  Abraham  were  named.  She  died 
in  1651,  and  three  years  later  Des  Grosseilliers  married  Radissou'a  sister, 
Margaret  Hayet. 

10 


THE  FRENCH  OCCUPY  THE  XOUTHWEST 

up  the  Ottawa,  only  to  run  into  an  ambush  of  Iroquois. 
The  twenty-nine  other  Frenchmen  in  the  expedition,  in- 
experienced and  tiniid,  decided  that  a  path  was  not 
worth  following  when  it  led  through  the  midst  of  such 
wary  enemies;  and  the  two  brothers-in-law  were  left  to 
pursue  their  westward  way  with  Indians  alone  for  com- 
panions. Just  where  the  voyage  took  the  adventurous 
Frenchmen  is  a  matter  of  great  doubt,  so  confused  is 
Radissun's  narrative.  He  claims  that  they  made  the 
circuit  of  Lake  Huron ;'  but  the  probability  is  that  they 
simply  coasted  along  the  shores  of  Geoi'gian  Bay,  arriv- 
ing at  the  Manitoulin  Islands."  Thence  they  passed 
through  the  Straits  of  Mackinac,  and  spent  the  winter 
near  the  southwestern  shores  of  Lake  Alichigan  and  in 
the  vicinity  of  Green  Bay.  Possibly  they  reached  the 
western  end  of  Lake  Superior;  probably  they  wandered 
about  among  the  head- waters  of  the  streams  that  flowed 
westward  yito  the  Mississippi. 

''  We  weare,"  says  Eadisson,  '*  4  moneths  in  our  voy- 
age w^^out  doeing  any  thing  but  goe  from  river  to  river. 
We  mett  severall  sorts  of  people.  We  conversed  w*^ 
them,  being  long  time  in  alliance  w*^  them.  By  the 
persuasion  of  some  of  them  we  went  into  ye  great  river 

'  Voyages,  p.  145.  Portions  of  the  Third  and  Fourth  Voyages  are 
to  be  found  in  vol.  xi.  of  the  Wisconsin  Ilistoricnl  Collections.  The 
full  and  careful  notes  are  by  Mr.  Reuben  G.  Thwaites,  whose  chro- 
nology seems  to  me  in  the  main  satisfactory.  I  do  not  think  it  is 
probable,  however,  that  Radisson  reached  Lake  Superior  on  liis  first 
voyage  nortliward.  Mr.  Campbell's  article  on  "Radisson  and  Gros- 
seilliers,"  in  the  American  Historical  lieriew,  January,  1896,  gives  the 
various  theories  advanced,  but  his  conclusion  that  but  one  northern 
voyage  was  made,  which  voyage  ended  in  16G0,  seems  to  me  improb- 
able. 

'■^  Had  they  made  the  circuit  of  the  lake,  mention  of  River  St.  Clair 
and  Saginaw  Bay  would  not  have  been  omitted. 

11 


THE    NOKTilWEST    UNDEll   TllKEE    FLAGS 

that  divides  itselfe  iti  2,  where  the  hurrons  w*^  some 
Ottanake  and  the  wild  men  (Indians)  that  had  warrs 
w»^  them  had  retired.  There  is  not  great  difference  in 
their  lanfjuao^e  as  we  weare  told.  Tiiis  nation  have 
warrs  against  those  of  forked  river.  It  is  so  called  be- 
cause it  has  2  branches,  the  one  towards  the  west,  the 
other  towards  the  South,  which,  we  believe,  runns  tow- 
ards Mexico,  by  the  tokens  they  gave  us." ' 

Now  tlie  Relation  of  1659-60  says  that  an  Indian, 
Asatanik  by  name,  set  out  in  the  June  of  1658  from  the 
Bay  des  Puants  (Green  Bay)  and  wintered  on  Lake  Su- 
perior, so  called  because  it  is  above  the  Lake  of  the 
Hurons,  into  which  it  flows  by  a  fall.'  From  Lake  Su- 
perior the  Indian  went  to  Hudson  Bay.  Returning  to 
Quebec  the  writer  of  the  Relation  found  two  French- 
men just  returned  from  those  upper  countries  w^ith  three 
hundred  canoes  laden  with  peltries;  they  said  they  had 
passed  the  winter  on  Lake  Superior,'  among  the  Ilurons 
of  the  Tobacco  Nation,  who  had  retreated  before  the 
Iroquois,  '•  across  mountains  and  over  rocks,  through 
the  depths  of  vast  unknown  forests,  and  at  length  had 
happily  arrived  at  a  beautiful  river,  large,  wide,  deep, 
and  resembling  (the  Indians  say)  our  great  river  St. 
Lawrence." 

The  confused  and  obscure  statements  in  Radisson's 
narrative,  coupled  with  the  passage  quoted  from  the 
Relation  of  1660,  have  been  made  the  basis  of  the  sur- 

>  Voyages,  pp.  167-68. 

'^  Relation  <>/ 1659,  p.  42,  ct  seq.  For  an  English  translation  of  this 
passage  and  others  relating  lo  lake  history,  ^eQ'^m.\i]is,  History  of  Wis- 
confiin,  vol.  iii.  (Madison,  1854). 

'"lis  ont  hiuerne  sur  les  riuages  du  lac  Superior."  "We  know 
from  the  Joiirnal  of  the  Jesuits  that  Grosseilliers  returned  at  this 
time.  But  the  statement  that  he  wirdered  on  Lake  Superior  is  ni- 
exact. 

12 


TIIK    FREXril    orrrrv    T II  ?:    XORTIIWKST 

mises'  of  some  writers  and  the  assertions  of  others  that 
the  two  French  explorers  reached  the  ^Mississippi  River 
and  were  the  real  discoverers  of  that  stream.'  On  the 
other  hand,  it  has  been  maintained  with  ecjiial  positive- 
ness  not  only  that  Des  Grosseilliers  and  liadisson  never 
saw  the  great  river,  but  that  they  made  only  a  single 
voyage  to  the  northwest,  returning  in  lf]60.  The  nar- 
rative of  the  first  journey  is  treated  as  a  pure  fabrica- 
tion on  Radisson's  part.'  Happily  the  fewest  difficulties 
attend  the  theory  that  in  the  main  Radisson  wrote 
truthfully;  and  that  such  errors  as  are  to  be  found  in 
his  accounts  are  doubtless  due  to  the  natural  confusion 
occasioned  by  trying  to  supplement  meagre  field  notes 
by  rec<jllections  called  from  an  untrained  memory.  It 
is  possible,  also,  that  in  the  course  of  two  centuries  some 
ptirts  of  the  manuscript  may  have  been  transposed,  thus 
creating  on  the  printed  page  of  to-day  errors  not  proper- 
ly chargeable  to  the  writer.* 

Probably  Radisson  and  his  companions  reached  some 
of  the  streams  that  flow  into  the  Mississippi  ;  and  un- 
doubtedly they  heard  from  the  Indians  vague  accounts 
of  the  river  itself,  just  as  their  immediate  successors 

'  Wiiisor,  Cartier  to  Frontenac,  p.  186. 

'  Reuben  G.  Tliwaites,  Wiacoiisin  Ilistorical  Collections,  vol,  xi.,  p. 
64,  note. 

^  Henry  Colin  Campbell.    "Radisson  and  Grosseilliers," in  American 
'  Historicdl  Redeic,  January,  1896. 

^  Introduction  to  Radisson's  Voyages,  p.  13.  The  Radisson  manu- 
scripts covering  the  period  from  1652  to  1664  were  presented  by 
Samuel  Pepys,  of  diary  fame,  who  was  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty  to 
Charles  II.  and  James  II.  Mr.  Scull  conjectures  that  Pepys  received 
\  the  papers  from  Sir  George  Carteret,  Treasurer  of  the  Navy,  for 
whom  Radisson  copied  them  out  in  order  that  they  might  be  brought 
before  Charles  II.  Pepys's  papers  were  sold  to  various  tradesmen  for 
wrapping-paper,  but  were  found  and  reclaimed  by  Richard  Rawlin- 
son. 

13 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDEll    THIIEE    FLAGS 

learned  of  it.  Even  admitting  that  they  reached  the 
Mississip])i,  they  did  not  claim  the  great  discovery,  nor 
did  their  accounts  point  tlie  way  to  other  explorers.' 
Their  tlioughts  and  amV)itions  were  directed  north waid 
towards  Hudson  Bav ;  and  thev  left  to  those  who  came 
after  them  the  discovery  and  mapping  of  the  great 
waterway.  To  the  student  of  Xorth western  history, 
iiowever,  the  name  of  Radisson  is  of  prime  importance, 
because  he  was  tlie  first  explorer  to  describe  what  he 
saw  on  his  travels  alonf^:  the  boundaries  of  that  rooion. 
Having  returned  in  safety  from  a  highl}^  profitable 
trip  to  Lake  Michigan,  Des  Grosseilliers  and  Radisson 
were  naturally  anxious  to  explore  Lake  Superior;  but 
they  decided  to  postpone  their  voyage  till  the  next 
year.  Meanwhile,  Father  Rene  Menard,  feeling  upon 
his  conscience  the  sins  of  the  lieathen,  embraced  an  op- 
portunity to  return  with  the  Indians  who  had  come 
down  with  the  two  Frenchmen.''  The  tale  of  Father 
Menard's  perilous  journey  is  one  of  many  relations  of 
self-sacrifice  ending  in  tragic  death,  that  give  pathos  to 

'  Winsor  says  that  tliere  is  no  question  that  Grosseilliers  wintered 
on  tlie  shores  of  Lake  Superior  in  1658-59,  and  that  he  was  joined  by 
Radisson  on  the  St.  Lawrence  during  the  latter  year.  Evidently  Mr. 
AVinsor  prefers  to  take  Suite's  chronology  rather  than  undertake  to 
construct  one  on  the  basis  of  Radissou's  statements.  I  think,  how- 
ever, that  any  one  who  will  take  the  pains  to  make  himself  familiar 
with  Radissou's  writings  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was 
essentially  truthful.  In  his  younger  days  at  least  he  had  a  tender 
heart  and  a  real  love  of  wild  life.  Mr.  Gilbert  Parker,  in  his  novel 
The  Trail  of  the  Sicord,  uses  the  name  of  Radisson  in  coimection  with 
a  renegade,  manifestly  an  unjust  act  towards  a  man  after  Mr.  Parker's 
own  heart,  did  he  but  know  it.  The  detailed  statements  of  Radisson 
as  to  the  occurrences  between  his  first  and  second  northwestern  voy- 
ages are  not  to  be  ignored. 

'  Winsor  falls  into  the  error  of  supposing  that   Menard   returned 
with  Grosseilliers,  whereas  the  latter  did  not  start  back  until  166L 

14 


OKAND   AKCll,  I'lCTLUhD   llOCKS,  LAKE   SUPKKIOR 


THE    FUEXriI    OCCUPY    Tllf-:    XOliTHWEST 

the  story  of  Xow  France.  On  Auonst  27,  l»*'r>0,  he  set 
out  to  '*  follow  the  Al<,^onquins  even  to  the  middle  of  the 
hike  of  the  maritime  nation  and  of  Lake  Superior.'" 
The  trip,  tedious  enough  at  best,  was  made  irksome  to 
the  last  degree  by  the  hard  labor  at  the  paddle  and  on 
the  portage  put  upon  the  aged  father  by  Indians  made 
lazv  and  indolent  bv  the  recent  debaucheries  of  the  fur- 
market.  Yet  in  due  time  the  party  reached  the  upper 
lake,  and  began  the  voyage  along  its  southern  shores. 
Ahnost  the  first  night  out  a  falling  tree  demolished  the 
canoe  assigned  to  Father  Menard  and  his  com})anion, 
Jean  Guerin;  and  in  this  dilemma  all  but  three  of  their 
Indian  friend  deserted  them."  For  days  their  only 
food  was  beggetl  from  passing  red  men ;  but  at  length  a 
party  of  friendly  Indians  came  to  their  rescue,  and  thus 
they  were  able  to  reach  Keweenaw  Bay,"  whei'e  the 
mission  was  to  be  established  by  buildinf]:  the  usual 
bark  cha])el.  Pathetic  indeed  is  the  recital  of  the  good 
old  father,  who  (piickly  forgot  the  pains  and  perils  of 
the  journey  in  the  ecstatic  pleasure  of  celebrating  the 
mass  and  in  bringing  the  ministrations  of  the  Church  to 
the  sick  and  dying  heathen.  Had  Father  Menard's 
mind  turned  more  to  the  thino^s  of  this  earth,  the  Ions: 
letters  he  sent  back  must  have  contained  the  first  de- 
scriptions of  the  wondrous  beauty  of  the  southern  shore 
of  Lake  Superior;  but  instead  we  have  the  recital  of 
suffering  and  disappointment  borne  bravely  for  the 
Masters  sake.     Then  the  letters  come  to  a  sudden  end. 

'  Relation  </ 1659-60,  p.  147. 

■  Lalemant,  lielations  of  166;>  and  1664. 

'Menard  named  the  waters  St.  Theresa's  Bay,  having  arrived  on 
her  day.  Shea  places  the  site  of  this  mission  at  Old  Village  Point, 
on  Keweenaw  Bay,  about  seven  miles  north  of  the  present  town  of 
L'Anse  {History  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Colonial  Days,  p.  263). 

15 


THK    NOIiTIIWEST    rNDKn    TIIIiKK    FLA^is 

On  the  tenth  day  of  Au<^iist,  ITjfn,  after  nearly  a  year 
of  fruitless  labors,  Father  Menard  set  out  for  a  wilder 
ness  journey  to  the  south,  and  either  lost  himself  and 
perished  from  starvation  or  else  was  murdered  by  those 
he  sought  to  save.' 

During  the  same  month  that  Father  Menard  laid 
down  Ins  life  for  the  heathen,  Des  (rrosseilliers  and 
Radisson,  having  eluded  the  vigilance  of  the  governor, 
who  had  demanded  the  right  to  send  two  of  his  servants 
with  them  and  to  sliare  the  profits,  started  on  a  second 
northern  journey.  It  is  in  Radisson's  narrative  of  this 
trip  that  we  find  the  first  detailed  descriptions  of  anv 
portion  of  the  present  State  of  Michigan.  Having 
reached  the  mouth  of  St.  Mary's  River,  they  began  to 
iXF^  3pd  that  beautiful  stream.  '•  We  came  after  to  a 
rapid  that  makes  the  separation  of  the  lake  of  the  hur 
rons,  that  we  calls  Superior,  or  upper,  for  that  ye  wild- 
men  hold  it  to  be  longer  and  broader,  besides  a  great 
many  islands,  which  maks  appeare  in  a  bigger  extent. 
This  rapid  was  formerly  the  dwelling  of  those  with 
whom  wee  wea.  3,  and  consequently  we  must  not  aske 
them  if  thev  knew  where  they  have  laved.  Wee  made 
cottages'  at  our  advantages,  and  found  the  truth  of 
what  those  men  had  often  (said),  that  if  once  we  could 
come  to  that  place  we  should  make  good  cheare  of  a 
lish  that  they  call  Assickmack,  w4iich  signifj^eth  a  w4iite 

'  Shea,  following  the  researches  of  Rev,  Edward  Jacker,  beli'Vt- 
that  Menard  reached  Vieux  Desert,  the  source  of  ?he  Wisconsin  (p 
265).  Henr}'  Colin  Campbell,  in  his  monograph  on  Father  Menard, 
published  by  the  Parkmau  Club  of  Milwaukee,  lias  traced,  with  all  pos- 
sible definiteness,  the  steps  of  the  good  priest's  journeys. 

"^  Baron  Dubois  d'Avangour  was  governor  at  this  time.  Tracy, 
Courcelles,  and  Talon  began  their  reign  in  1665. 

^Radisson  uses  the  phrase  "made  cottages,"  as  we  say  "made 
camp." 

16 


TIIK    I'llKXCII     OCCITV    Tin-:     \()i:'I'II\VEST 

tisli.  Till'  boar,  tlie  castors  (boavors^,  and  the  Oriniack 
(moose)  sliowed  themselves  often,  hut  to  their  cost;  in- 
deed  it  was  to  us  hko  a  terrestrial  paradise— after  so 
lon^,'  fasting,  after  so  great  paines  yt  we  had  taken  (to) 
fiiule  ourselves  so  well  by  chossing  our  dyet,  and  rest- 
inf*-  when  wo  had  a  mind  to  it;  'tis  here  that  we  must 
tast  with  [pleasure  a  sweet  bitt.  We  doe  not  aske  for  a 
good  sauce  ;  its  better  to  havi;  it  naturally— it  is  the  way 
to  distinguish  the  sweet  from  the  bitter.'" 

But  the  season  was  so  far  spent  that  the  voyageurs 
were  forced  to  leave  their  terrestrial  paradise  and  its 
whitetish  to  ''thecursed  Iroquoits";  yet  for  very  shame 
they  were  impelled  ''  to  give  thanks  to  the  river,  to  the 
earth,  to  the  woods  and  to  the  rocks  that  stayes  the 
fish."  For  days,  when  sky  and  water  and  coast-line  im- 
perceptibly melted  one  into  the  other  in  the  blue  haze, 
they  paddled  leisui'ely  along  the  southern  shore  of  Lake 
Superior.  On  tii(i  banks  of  the  streams  they  found 
pieces  of  copper,  some  of  which  weighed  as  much  as  a 
hundred  poumls;  and  the  Indians  pointed  out  a  great 
hill  of  that  metal,  but  deterred  the  incredulous  explor- 
ers from  proving  the  truth  of  their  story  by  saying  that 
even  larger  deposits  lay  beyond. 

With  mingled  wonder  and  delight  they  skirted  coasts 
that  nature  had  made  pleasant  alike  *'  to  the  eye,  the 
sperit  and  the  belly,"  until  they  came  to  those  remark- 
able plains  of  shifting  sand  early  named  the  Grand  Sables. 
*^  As  we  went  along  we  saw  banckes  of  sand  so  high  that 
one  of  our  wildmen  went  upp  for  curiositie;  being  there, 
did  show  no  more  than  a  crow.  Thiit  place  is  most 
dangerous  when  there  is  any  storme,  being  no  landing 

'  Voyages,  p.  187.     Had  Radisson  visited  the  Sault  on  his  first  voy- 
age, as  has  been  held,  he  would  not  have  been  likely  to  speak  of  it 
so  minutely  in  the  relation  of  his  second  journey. 
B  17 


TFIK    NOKTIIWKST    U  N  D  K  K    TIlliKE    FLAGs 

]>laco  so  lonfi^  ms  tiic  sandy  banckosan'  nn<1or  water;  and 
when  tlie  wind  blowcs,  that  sand  doth  rise  by  a  strange 
kind  of  wliiilin<^s  that  are  able  tochoake  tlio  passengers. 
One  dav  v(iu  will  see  50  small  mountains  att  one  side; 
and  the  next  dav,  if  the  wind  clianffes,  on  the  other 
side.  This  putts  me  in  mind  of  the  great  and  vast 
wilderness  of  TurKey  hind,  as  the  Tunpies  makes  their 
pilgrimages/" 

Pursuing  their  course  they  ''came  to  a  remarquable 
place.  Its  a  banke  of  Hocks  that  the  wild  men  made  a 
sacrifice  to;  they  calls  it  NdnltoHrkjimujo'it^  which  signi- 
fies the  likenesse  of  the  devil.     Tliev  tlinf?  much  tobacco 

ft'  Cj 

and  other  thing's  in  veneration.  It  is  a  thinff  most  in- 
credible  that  the  lake  should  be  so  boisterous  that  the 
waves  of  it  should  have  the  strength  to  doe  what  I  have 
to  say  by  this  my  discours:  first,  that  it's  so  high  and 
soe  deepe  yt  it's  impossible  to  claime  up  to  the  })oint. 
There  comes  manv  sorte  of  birds  vt  makes  there  nest 

ft^'  ft- 

here,  the  goilants,  which  is  a  white  sea-bird  of  the  big- 
nesse  of  a  pigeon,  which  makes  me  believe  what  ye  wild- 
men  told  me  concerning  tlie  sea  to  be  neare  directly  to 
ye  point.  It's  like  a  great  Portall  by  reason  of  the 
beating  of  the  waves.  The  lower  part  of  that  opening 
is  as  big  as  a  tower,  and  grows  bigger  in  going  up. 
There  is,  I  believe,  six  acres  of  land.  Above  it  a  ship 
of  600  tuns  could  passe  by,  soe  bigg  is  the  arch.  I  gave 
it  the  name  of  the  portall  of  St.  Peter,  because  my  name 
is  so  called,  and  that  I  was  the  first  Christian  that  ever 
saw  it."     There  is  in  place  caves  very  deepe,  caused  by 

'  Bela  Hubbard,  writing  of  a  voyage  to  Lake  Superior  that  he  made 
in  1840,  gives  a  very  graphic  description  of  "  the  grand  and  leafless 
Sables,"     See  Mc/noriuls  of  Iltilf  a  Century. 

'^  Radisson  did  not  know  of  Menard's  voyage.  With  this  descrip- 
tion compare  that  of  General  Cass  in  Smith's  Life  of  Leicis  Cass. 

18 


illK    KliKXCIl    (X^CUPV    tin:    NoliTIIWKST 

tlio  samo  violt'ncc.  AV\'  imist  look  to  onrselvos  and  take 
time  Willi  our  sin;ill  I)(>at8.  The  coast  of  rocks  is  T)  or  t» 
leagiu's,  and  tlieio  scarce  a  place  to  putt  a  boat  in  as- 
surance from  tlio  waves.  When  llie  lake  is  agitated 
llic  waves  goetli  in  these  concaviries  with  force  and 
make  a  most  horrible  noise,  most  likti  the  shooting  of 

great  guns." 

it  is  strange  that  in  so  extended  a  description  of  tlu^ 
rictuied  Rocks,  Uadisson  has  omitted  all  notice  of  the 
one  feature  that  gives  to  them  their  present  name— the 
brilliant  colors  produced  on  the  surface  of  the  rocks  by 
the  exudinii"  of  mineral  [)aints. 

Coming  to  what  are  now  known  asthn  TTuron  Islands, 
liadisson  looked  upon  their  beauties  and  because  *' there 
be  3  in  triangle,"  he  called  them  "  of  ye  Trinity."  Wait- 
in  «'•  for  fair  weather,  the  Frenchmen  sailed  across  Ke- 
weenaw  Day  to  the  mouth  of  Portage  River,  and  were 
surprised  to  iind  there  meadows  S(piart?d  and  smooth  as 
aboard,  the  work  of  the  beavers,  which  industrious  ani- 
mals had  cut  the  trees  and  flooded  many  a  scpiare  mile 
of  territory.'  The  explorers  broke  through  the  beaver 
dams,  and  at  last  came  to  ''a  trembling  ground  ''  over 
which  they  dragged  their  boats.  "The  ground  became 
trembling  by  this  means:  the  castors  drowning  great 
soyles  with  dead  water,  herein  grows  mosse  which  is  2 
loot  thick  or  there  abouts,  and  when  vou  think  to  o-oe 
sate  and  dry,  if  you  take  not  good  care  you  sink  downe 
to  your  head  or  to  the  middle  of  your  body.  When 
vou  are  out  of  one  hole  vou  find  vourselfe  in  another. 
This  I  Speake  by  experience,  for  I  myself  have  bin 
catched  often.     lUU  the  wild  men  warned  me,  which 


•o' 


'  TliDse  ^ho  are  familiar  with  the  outlet  of  Portaoce  Lake  will  notice 
how  accurate  this  description  is. 

19 


THE    NORTinVI<:ST    UXDKIi    TIfKEE    FLAGS 

saved  me ;  thnt  is,  tliat  when  the  mosse  sliould  break 
under,  I  sliouki  cast  rnv  whole  bodv  into  the  water  on 
sudaine — I  must  witli  my  liands  hokl  the  mosse,  and 
go  like  a  frogg,  then  to  draw  mv  boat  after  me.  There 
was  no  danger.'' 

Gloomy  I^ortage  Lake  passed,  they  came  to  the  car- 
riage, where  is  now  the  government  ship-canal.  There 
they  found  the  way  ''  well  beaten  because  of  the  confers 
and  goers,  who  by  making  that  passage  shortens  their 
passage  by  ^>  days  by  tourning  about  the  point  that  goes 
very  farr  in  that  o^reat  lake ;  that  is  to  say,  5  to  come  to 
the  point  and  3  for  to  come  to  the  landing  of  that  place 
of  carriage."  They  were  told  that  a  league  from  tlu^ 
end  of  Keweenaw"  Point  was  an  island  all  of  copper,  and 
that  from  this  island,  when  one  was  "  minded  to  thwart 
it  in  a  faire  and  calme  weather,  beginning  from  sun 
rising  to  sun  sett,  they  come  to  a  great  island  (Isle 
Royale)  from  which  they  come  the  next  morning  to 
firme  lande  on  the  other  side." 

Pursuing  their  westward  way,  the  two  Frenchmen 

reach  ^d  the  Chequamegon  Bay  and    wintered   among 

the  tribes  gathered  from  the  four  points  of  the  compass 

to  dwell  tor  a  season  beside  the  abundant  fisheries  of 

the  greatest  of  lakes.     From  the  east  came  the  nations 

of  the  Sault,  to  regale  themselves  with  "  sturgeons  of  a 

vas"^  bio*ness,  and  Pvcts  of  seaven  foot  lono^."      From 

the   west  the  Xadoneseronons  (Sioux)  ajipeared,  each 

warrior  accompanied  by  his  two  wives  bearing  oats  and 

corn,  garments  of  butfalo  fur  and  ''  w4iite  castor"  skins; 

and  following  the  first  embassy  came  a  deputation  of 

young   men   with   'Mncredible   pomp"  that   reminded 

Radisson  of  the  entrance  of  the  Polanders  into  Paris. 

"  save  that  they  had  not  so  many  Jewells,  but  instead 

of  the       'ley  had  so  many  feathers."     From  the  south 

20 


THE  FRENCH  OCCUPY  THE  NORTHWEST 

came  old  friends  from  Green  Bay,  whom  they  had  met 
durino"  their  first  voyage,  and  who  now  gave  them  warm 
oreetino's.  Best  of  all,  from  the  north  came  the  Christi- 
lies  who  filled  the  willing  ears  of  the  Frenchmen  with 
tales  of  the  immense  Wches  in  furs  of  the  lands  about 
Hudson  Bay. 

R(^turning  in  ir»02  with  a  rich  harvest  of  peltries,  the 
enterprising  brothers-in-law  were  promptly  arrested  for 
presuming  to  trade  without  a  license ;  Des  Grosseilliers 
was  made  a  prisoner,  and  of  the  £46,000  worth  of  furs 
thev  brought  back  £24,000  was  taken  for  fines  and 
dues,  to  show"  for  which  they  were  to  have  the  empty 
honor  of  putting  their  coat  of  arms  above  the  fort  at 
Three  Rivers  which  was  to  be  built  from  the  proceeds 
of  the  confiscated  property.'  So  ungrateful  was  their 
own  governnient  towards  these  self-sacrificing  but  ex- 
ceeding thrifty  explorers  that  they  found  a  way  to 
transfer  their  allegiance  to  England  and,  by  the  favor 
t  of  Prince  Rupert,  to  lay  the  foundatiois  of  that  vast 
^   and  wealthy  monopojy,  the  Hudson  Bay  Company. 

While  Des  Grosseilliers  and  Radisson  were  enduring 
the  privations  and  enjoying  the  feasts  among  the  Lake 
Indians,  fragments  of  Menard's  letters  found  their  \vay 
to  Quebec,  and  the  blood  of  this  martyr  speedily  became 
^he  seed  of  missions  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  at  Ashland,  and 
at  Green  Bay.  It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Father  Claude  Al- 
louez  to  take  up  the  work  of  ''  this  great  and  painful 
mission."  It  was  early  in  the  September  of  1665  that 
xVUouez  entered  upon  the  broad  expanse  of  the  upper 
lake,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  his  patron,  '*  Mon- 

'  Voyages,  p.  241.  In  vol.  ii.,  No  5,  of  the  publications  of  the  Michi- 
gan Political  Science  Association,  I  have  discussed  more  fully  the 
claims  of  Radisson  and  Des  Grosseilliers  as  the  discoverers  of  Lake 
Superior. 

21 


THE    NOKTIIWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

sieur  Tracy.'"  Passing  the  scene  of  Menard's  labors,  lu 
came  to  Chequamegon  Bay,  where  he  built  a  chapel  of 
bark  and  set  up  the  altar  of  his  church,  naming  his  mis- 
sion Iai  Pointe  d'Esprit.  During  his  frequent  mission- 
ary journeys  he  came  upon  the  wandering  Sioux,  who 
told  him  of  their  home  towai'ds  the  great  river  ^'  ^Fes- 
sepi,''  of  their  prairies  abounding  in  game  of  all  kinds, 
of  their  fields  of  tobacco,  and  of  a  still  more  remote 
tribe  beyond  whose  home  the  earth  is  cut  off  by  a  great 
lake  whose  waters  are  ill-smelling  like  the  sea. 

After  two  years  of  wandering  and  teaching.  Allouez 
returned  to  Quebec  on  the  third  day  of  August,  1667; 
vet  so  f':reat  was  his  zeal  that  after  but  fortv-eight  hours 
of  civilization  he  plunged  again  into  the  wilderness. 
His  importunate  appeals  for  laborers  to  enter  fields 
white  for  the  harvest  called  into  service  Father  James 
Marquette,  who  in  1668  established  himself  at  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  and  there  began  a  permanent  mission  that 
became  the  first  white  settlement  within  the  present 
borders  of  Alichigan.  When  Allouez  was  called  to 
Green  Bay  in  1669,  Marquette  moved  on  to  La  Pointe 
d'Esprit,  leaving  in  ^5  place  at  the  Sault  Father  Claude 
Dablon,  in  ^^•^10se  writings  we  find  the  first  mention  of 
the  Ontona^  i  copper  region,  whence  a  hundred-pound 
fraofment  of  ore  had  been  brouo:ht  to  him  in  1767,  and 
which  he  himself  visited  a  few  years  later." 

'  Alexaivler  de  Prouville,  Marquis  de  Trac}',  lieutenant-general. 

2  The  French  speak  of  "mines"  of  copper,  and  the  word  is  often 
transferred  into  English,  It  should  be  translated  "  deposits."  There 
were  copper  mines  in  the  Lake  Superior  region,  but  they  were  the 
work  of  the  Mound-builders,  and  were  not  known  to  the  Indians.  I  have 
tried  to  connect  the  once  famous  Ontonagon  copper  bowlder,  now  in 
the  Smitiisouian  [n?:itutiou  at  Washington,  with  the  work  of  the  'an- 
cient miners."  Set;  Smitlisonian  Institution  publications,  National 
.Museum  report  for  1895,  pp.  1021-1030. 

22 


JAMES   MAK(iUETTE,   S.J. 


THE    FUENCII    OCCUPY    THE    NOKTllWKST 

To  Marquette  at  La  Pointe  came  the  Illinois  Indians 
from  the  south,  who  excited  his  imagination  to  as  great 
an  extent  as  the  Christinos  from  the  north  had  excited 
the  imaginations  of  Grosseilliers  and  Kadisson,  and  with 
a  correspondingly  momentous  result.  ^'  When  the  Illi- 
nois come  to  La  Pointe,"  says  Marquette,  "  they  pass  a 
(j-reat  river  almost  a  lea^'ue  in  breatlth.  It  flows  from 
north  to  south,  and  so  far  that  the  Illinois,  who  know 
not  the  use  of  the  canoe,  have  never  so  much  as  heard 
of  the  mouth."  An  Illinois  youth  who  acted  as  in- 
structor in  language  to  Marquette  told  the  priest  that 
he  had  seen  Indians  from  the  south  who  were  loaded 
down  with  glass  beads,  thus  proving  that  they  had 
trafficked  with  the  whites.  That  the  great  river  emptied 
itself  in  Virginia  seemed  to  Marquette  hardly  proba- 
ble; he  was  inclined  to  believe  that  its  mouth  was  in 
California.  At  any  rate  he  was  determined  to  secure 
the  company  of  a  white  companion,  and,  witli  his  Indian 
boy  as  interpreter,  to  navigate  the  river  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, to  visit  the  nations  who  lived  along  its  banks  in  order 
to  prepare  the  way  for  the  fathers  of  the  Church,  and 
to  obtain  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  sea  either  to  the 
south  or  to  the  west. 

Before  starting  on  the  journey  that  was  to  make  im- 
mortal his  name  and  that  of  his  companion,  Marquette 
all  unwittingly  must  needs  prepare  the  place  of  his 
burial.  It  so  happened  that  in  the  dispersion  of  the 
Hurons  by  the  Iroquois,  a  remnant  of  the  Tobacco 
Nation  dwelling  south,  of  Georgian  Bay  had  taken 
refuge  first  on  the  island  of  Michilimackinac,  celebrated 
for  its  fishing.  After  a  stay  scarcely  longer  than  that 
of  a  modern  tourist,  the  Indians  fled  from  their  relentless 
pursuers  first  to  Green  Bay  and  then  to  La  Pointe, 
where  they  dwelt  in  peace  for  several  years,  until  by 

23 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

ill  chance  they  incurred  the  hostility  of  the  Sioux. 
This  most  chivalrous  nation  first  returned  to  Marquette 
the  images  he  had  given  to  tliem,  and  tlien  began  a 
vigorous  warfare  on  the  IIui  is.  In  the  |)rogress  of 
hostilities  tlie  prisoners  were  (rned  so  freely  as  to 
carry  consternation  to  the  dispirited  Ilurons,  who  quick- 
ly abandoned  their  homes  and  well- tilled  fields  and, 
returning  to  the  Straits  of  Mackinac,  established  them- 
selves on  the  north  side  of  that  passage.  To  his  new  mis- 
sion Marquette — for  he  had  followed  his  fleeing  Hock- 
gave  the  name  of  St.  Ignace,  and  so  the  j)lace  is  known 
to  this  day.  There  the  Indians  filled  his  chapel  every 
day,'  singing  praises  to  God  with  such  devotion  as  to 
move  even  the  French  coxireurs  des  hois  who  conti^regated 
at  this  gateway  of  Indian  travel;  and  there  the  zealous 
father  inspired  in  his  savage  converts  a  degree  of  affec- 
tion that  all  too  soon  found  its  last  manifestation  in  the 
weird  journey  to  discover  his  body  and  with  wild  grief 
to  bring  it  back  to  sepulchre  beneath  the  chapel  in 
which  he  had  so  patiently  instructed  them. 

While  Marquette  was  still  at  La  Pointe  a  picturesque 
if  not  important  ceremony  had  taken  place  at  Sault  Sto. 
Marie.  On  the  llth  day  of  June,  1671,  Simon  Frangois 
Daumont.  Sieur  Saint  Lusson,  as  the  representative  of 
tlie  ambitious  Intendant,  Talon,  erected  on  the  crest  of 
the  hill  overlooking  the  broad  expanse  of  lake  and  the 
dashing  rapids  of  the  river  a  cedar  cross  bearing  the 
arms  of  France ;  and  in  sounding  phrase  ^  he  assumed 
for  his  kin^i:  authoritv  over  those  unknown  lands  from 

'  Dablou,  Relations  of  1671  and  1672.  A  full  account  of  Marquette's 
wanderings  is  given  by  Dablon. 

2  Saii)t  Lusson's  proems- verbal  is  given  in  the  Wisconsin  Histojica' 
Collections,  vol.  xi.,  p.  26.  Bancroft,  Parkman,  and  Winsor  all  devote 
considerable  attention  to  this  ceremony. 

24 


THE    FRENCH    OCCUPY    THE    NORTHWEST 

the  North  Sea  to  the  south  and  westward  to  seas  the 
substance  of  things  hoped  for.  Among  the  little  group 
of  Frenchmen  wiio  represented  civihzatiun  and  Louis 
XIV.  before  the  thousands  of  Indians  whom  tlie  inde- 
fatigable Perrot  had  gathered  at  the  Sault  was  a  young 
man  who  bad  left  the  cjuiet  paths  of  philosophy  and 
had  turned  aside  from  the  strait  ways  of  the  Church 
eagerlv  to  pursue  the  hazardous  and  exciting  life  of  the 
fur-trader  and  explorer.  This  was  not  Louis  Joliet's 
first  visit  to  the  Lake  Superior  countiy.  In  1008  he 
had  been  sent  thither  by  Talon  to  discover  the  copper 
deposits  of  which  the  Jesuit  fathers  said  so  much ;  and 
failing  in  the  attempt — as  those  who  came  after  him  for 
two  centuries  failed — he  had  returned  to  the  St.  Law- 
rence bv  the  St.  Clair  and  Detroit  rivers  and  bv  Lake 
Erie,  the  discovery  of  which  waterways  alone  would 
have  given  his  name  a  place  in  history  had  he  left  record 
of  his  achievement.  Joliet  was  an  explorer  after  Talon's 
own  heart — he  could  live  off  the  countiy  and  pay  him- 
self by  traffic  in  peltJ'ies,  while  he  was  carrying  the  flag 
of  France  into  new  regions.  It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that 
to  the  zeal  of  the  Church,  as  represented  by  Marquette, 
Talon  added  the  enterprise  of  the  state  incarnate  in 
Joliet,  for  the  discovery  of  that  western  river — forgotten 
-ince  the  davs  of  De  Soto — the  navigation  of  which 
should  realize  the  extravagant  claims  of  Saint  Lusson. 

Setting  out  from  St.  Ignace  on  May  IT,  1673,  priest 
and  trader  pushed  their  canoes  across  the  northern  end 
of  Lake  Michigan  to  the  mission  at  Green  Bav,  thence 
up  the  Fox,  across  Lake  Winnebago,  and  by  portage  to 
i  the  Wisconsin,  down  which  stream  thev  floated  until  on 
June  17th  their  light  canoes  were  caught  and  whirled 
along  by  the  on-rushing  Mississippi,  thus  accomplishing 
a  discovery  that,  in  the  words  of  Bancroft,  '*  changed 

25 


TlIK    XORTIIWEST    rXDKU    TIIKFK    FLA(;> 

the  destiny  of  nations^''  At  the  mouth  of  the  Arkan 
sas  they  turned  about,  being  persuaded  that  the  river 
Ho  wed  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  return  was  l)v 
way  of  the  Iliiiu>is  River  and  Lake  Michigan.  Marquett. 
rested  at  his  mission  of  St.  Ignace.  leaving  Joliet  to 
descend  to  Quebec  with  the  news  of  the  complete  sue 
cess  of  their  enterprise. 

Assigned  to  the  Green  Bay  mission,  Marquette  felt 
the  conversion  of  southern  Indians  so  heavily  on  lii> 
conscience  that  he  secured  permission  to  return  to  them: 
and  in  the  winter  of  lf)74  he  built  and  furnished  a  bark 
chapel  in  the  town  of  the  Kaskaskias.  The  seeds  of 
disease  were  in  his  system,  however,  and  he  was  seized 
with  a  lono'intj:  to  die  amontj:  his  brethren  and  his  de- 
voted  flock  at  St.  Imiace.  Assisted  bv  two  canoeraen. 
he  worked  his  way  north  to  the  foot  of  Lake  Michigan 
and  skirted  its  sandy  shores.  On  the  night  of  May  10. 
1675,  he  made  camp  near  the  wild  and  lonely  promon- 
tory of  the  Sleeping  Bear;  the  evening  was  spent  in 
prayer,  and  as  midnight  approached  his  strength  failed. 
With  the  music  of  the  lapping  waves  in  his  ears  and  the 
names  of  Jesn  and  Mary  on  his  lips,  at  the  paiting  of  the 
days,  the  geiiile  spirit  of  the  great  discoverer  journeyed 
to  the  undiscovered  country.  Tenderly  his  faithful  boat- 
men buried  him  in  the  white  sands,  and  two  years  later 
a  band  of  Ottawas  found  his  body  and  bore  it  to  St. 
Ignace.  There,  under  the  chapel  he  had  built,  the  bones 
of '*  the  guardian  angel  of  the  Ottawa  missions"  reposed 
for  two  full  centuries,  until  a  member  of  his  order  found 
them  under  the  ashes  of  the  church  and  marked  their 
resting-place.' 

'  Shea's  History  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Colonial  Days,  p.  319. 
We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  Marquette  as  a  man  well  along  in 
years.     He  was  but  thirty-eight  years  old  when  he  died  ;  but  he  had 

26 


or 

r. 

I— 

c 
ts 

> 


TlIK    KKKNCll    UCCUrV    TIIH     NoKTIlWKST 

Meantime,  Joliet,  after  a  short  stay  at  Saiilt  Ste. 
Marie,  returned  to  Quebec  to  spread  the  news  of  the 
(liscoverv  of  the  Mississippi  and  to  incite  the  anjl)itious 
Talon  to  fresli  entei'prises  for  the  sprea<l  of  the  king's 
(luinain.     The  way  was  now  open  and  the  man  was  at 

hand. 

On  a  bright  August  morning,  in  the  year  1079,  a  well- 
ri(rfred  vessel  of  some  forty-five  tons  rode  easily  at  anch- 
or under  the  lee  of  one  of  the  beautiful  islands  that 
dot  the  green  waters  at  the  head  of  Lake  Eiie.  From 
the  vessel's  decks  live  small  guns  threatened  the  peace- 
fid  shores ;  and  on  the  morning  breeze  that  blew  lazily 
over  lonelv  promontory  and  wooded  waste,  over  Indian 
lod<''e  and  the  haunt  of  wild  deer,  rose  and  fell  the 
soft  white  folds  of  a  ilag  that  bore  the  lilies  of  France 
shining  solitary  in  the  wilderness.' 

Rene  Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  la  Salle,  as  he  paced 
the  (iuarter-deck  of  his  little  ship  that  August  morning, 
was  at  the  height  of  his  fortunes.  Not  only  did  he 
bear  the  royal  commission  to  establish  a  line  of  forts 
along  the  Great  Lakes,  whereby  to  hold  for  France  all  that 
rich  fur  country,  but  he  had  also  in  his  possession  letters 
signed  by  the  powerful  King  Louis  XIV.,  granting  to 
him  hirge  concessions  in  the  matter  of  the  profitable 
trade  in  beaver-skins. 

On  the  sharp  prow  of  his  vessel  La  Salle  had  placed 
the  roughly  carv^ed  figure  of  a  griffin,  a  symbol  chosen 
from  the  armorial  bearings  of  his  friend  and  supporter. 
Count  Frontenac,  governor-general  of  the  French  pos- 

been  a  priest  for  twenty-one  years.  In  1877,  Father  J:icker  di^^coverecl 
3I:irqiiette's  remains  beneatli  the  mission  cliapel  l)urned  in  1705 — not 
in  1700.  as  Shea  has  it.     Compare  Shea,  p.  819,  with  p.  622. 

'  Parkinun's  La  Salle  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Great  West  and 
Louis  Hennepin's  Truceh  are  the  authorities  for  this  voyage. 

27 


TIIK    NoKTIIWKST    UNDKK    Til  UK  K    V\.\t,s 

sessions  in  the  New  World  ;  ami  as  he  watched  his  sliij 
take  shaj>o  on  the  hanks  of  the  Niagara  Iliver,  he  li; 
fondly  strokeil   the   head   of  the   monster,  swearing  t 
make  the  grillln  My  a  hove  the  crows.     By  this  oatli  he 
meant  tiiat  in  his  piii'poses  of  tra<h»  and  exploration  h 
would  niil  allow  himself  to  he  thwarted  hy  the  Jesiiii> 
who  claimed  the  Indians  for  tjjeir  inheritance  and  win 
wei'o  hent  on  m.ikin^  the  uttermost  j)arts  of  this  ncv, 
earth  their  exclusive  possession.     Such   pious  piirpox- 
the  Jesuits  foresaw,  must  come  to  notllin<,^  if  once  th. 
brandy  of  the  fur-traders  and  tip    free-and-easy  life  of 
the  cou?*eurs  dc  hoJa  should  gain  a  footing  among  th 
savages. 

La  Salle,  on  the  other  hand,  looked  forward  to  a  chaii 
of  forts  and  trading-posts  stretching  from  Quebec  aloi,- 
the  Great  Lakes  and  thence  down  the  Mississi})pi  to  iu 
mouth.  At  these  posts  the  rich  furs  of  the  north  aii^ 
the  valuable  butfalo  hides  of  the  ])rairies  should  Ic 
gathered  for  shipment  to  France.  With  the  Mississippi 
an  open  patiiway  to  Europe,  there  would  be  no  need  of 
the  long  voyage  across  the  tempestuous  Erie  and  On- 
tario, frozen  during  half  the  year  and  guarded  perpetu- 
ally by  the  blood-thirsty  Iro{]Uois,  friends  of  the  Eng- 
lish and  f^emies  of  the  French  and  their  allies,  the 
llurons. 

In  order  to  carry  out  his  plans  of  trade  and  explora- 
tion, La  Salle  had  built  the  Gr{ffi)i  and  had  gathered  a 
crew^  of  four  and  thirty  men.  Behind  at  Montreal  his 
clamorous  creditors,  uro^ed  on  bv  his  commercial  rivals. 
were  already  in  possession  of  his  estate;  but  before  him 
w^ere  untold  riches  in  beaver-skins,  and  beneath  his  feet 
was  the  stanch  vessel  whose  single  voyage  should  bring 
him  profits  sufficient  to  pay  every  debt  and  yet  leave 

him  fortune  enough  to  pursue  those  schemes  of  explora- 

28 


Till-:    KKKN<    II     <H  ('UI»V    'I'HK     Noiri'llW  KS'l' 

[urn  wliioli  for  y«^tii*s  had  lillcd  his  thoii^^hts  hy  (hiy  ami 
his  dreaiMs  hy  ni^dit.' 

Horn  of  Ji  wcullliy  and  horioi'ahle  Kouou  family,  La 
Salle  ill  his  youth  had  joined  tho  Society  of  .lesiis;  hut 
findiri"'  himself  more  inclined  to  h^ad  than  to  follow  iin 

sli<jnin<dv^  the  directions  of  others,  he  had  left  the 


(lilt ." 


'I 

Jesuits,  and  at  tho  ii<;e  of  twenty-three  had  sailed   foi* 

America,  whithei'  his  hrother,  the  Ahhr  .I(\an  (avelier, 

had  preceded  him.     His  tii'st  establishment,  nine  miles 

uhove   Afontreal,  afterwards    receivcnl    in   derision  the 

name  of  La  Chine,  because  of  La  Salle's  failure  to  find 

a  iMtli  to  China  by  way  of  the  ^fississippi.     Tn  these 

later  (lays,  this  name  of  ridicule  has  been   made  «^ood 

tjv  the  passage   across   La   Salle's    old    ])ossessions   of 

the  Canadian  Pacific  railway,  England's   new  way   to 

China. 

La  Salle,  keenly  ambitious,  straightforward  in  all  his 
dealings,  and  resei'ved  in  the  expression  of  his  feelings, 
was  one  of  those  men  who  keep  their  eyes  fixed  so 
steadfastly  on  the  goal  that  they  take  no  pleasure  in  the 
running.  For  this  reason  he  had  little  in  common  with 
the  Recollect  priest  who  made  one  of  the  company  on 
board  the  Grijfin.  In  the  make-u|>  of  Father  Louis 
Hennepin  a  strong  desire  to  roam  the  world  over  con- 
stantly warred  with  an  inclination  to  enjoy  in  comfort 
the  srood  thinfjs  of  this  life  as  thev  came  to  him.  While 
liis  fellow  monks  were  doing  penance  for  their  sins, 
Fatlier  Hennepin  had  been  accustomed  to  steal  away  to 
borne  secluded  spot,  there  to  spend  the  rapid  hours  in 
poring  over  the  Relations  sent  back  to  France  from  the 

'  Sometime  during  the  years  1609-70  La  Salle  bad  reached  the 
Ohio  from  Lake  Erie,  and  had  floated  down  that  river  to  the  present 
site  of  Louisville.  See  Purkman's  La  Salle  ami  the  Discovery  of  the 
I! rait  Went,  p.  22. 

29 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE     FLAGS 

"five  hundred  convents  f  Eecollects  scattered  over 
two  and  twenty  provinces  in  America."' 

When  such  writin<^s  failed  him,  he  used  often  to  skulk- 
behind  the  doors  of  Dunkirk  inns  to  listen  to  the  talk  ot 
seamen.  **  The  smoke  of  tobacco,"  he  writes, ''  was  dis- 
agreeable to  me  and  created  pains  in  my  stomach,  while 
1  was  thus  intent  upon  giving  ear  to  their  relations  ;  yet. 
nevertheless,  I  was  verv  attentive  to  the  accounts  thev 
gave  of  their  encounters  by  land  and  sea.  the  peril  they 
had  gone  through,  and  all  the  accidents  which  befell  them 
in  their  long  voyages.  This  occupation  was  so  agree- 
able to  me  that  1  have  spent  whole  days  and  nights  at 
it  without  eating.'' 

On  the  bloody  field  of  Seneff,  where  Prince  Conde 
and  William  of  Orange  heaped  the  ground  with  twenty 
thousand  corpses,  Father  Hennepin  was  ministering  to 
the  dying  when  he  received  the  lo'ig-hoped-f or  orders 
to  proceed  to  Hochelle  and  there  take  passage  for  Amer- 
ica. On  the  same  vessel  with  Hennepin  were  La  Salle 
and  his  faithful  friend  Henrv  de  Tontv,  the  son  of  tlie 
famous  financier  whose  name  the  word  ''  tontine  "  pre- 
serves for  us. 

When  La  Salle  came  to  make  up  his  company,  doubt- 
less he  was  glad  to  secure  the  aid  ol  a  ^.riest  who  was  not 
a  Jesuit  and  therefore  not  an  enemy ;  who,  though  nat- 
urally suspicious,  could  be  brou<?ht  M'ound  by  a  few 
words  of  flattery  ;  who  had  no  a  i  :)ition  save  to  fi:"atifv 
an  insatiable  desire  to  see  new  places ;  and  who,  when  an 
adventure  was  on  foot,  could  live  on  boiled  corn  and 
sleep  i^^  a  hole  in  the  snow.  Thus  it  was  that  while 
the  Griffin  was  building,  Father  Hennepin's  prayei's 
and  exhortations  were  added  to  Tontv^'s  commands  to 
keep  the  fickle  ship-carpenters  at  work;  and  when  at 
last  the  vessel   was  ready  for  her  voyage,  Hennepin's 

'30 


llOCEnT   HAVET.IEU,  SIEUR  DE   T.A  SAI.T.E 


THE    FRENCH    OCCUPY    THE    XOKTllWEST 

voice  led  in  the  Te  Denm  wliicli  celebrated  the  joyful 
passage  from  the  rapid  waters  of  >i'iagara  to  the  broad 
expanse  of  Lake  Erie. 

After  a  tempestuous  voyage  across  this  most  fitful  of 
hikes  the  Grijfin  awaited  but  a  favorable  wind  to  at- 
trinpt  the  passage  of  the  wide  river  called  by  the  French 
th(3  strait — Detroit.  As  the  morning  breeze  came  dan- 
riiio-  across  the  glassy  waters  the  pilot  quickly  got  the 
v.ssel  under  w^a}^  and  the  Gf'iffin,  l)orne  along  by  her 
t  vofreat  square-sails,  fairly  flew  over  the  white-capped 
l.llows.  Laying  her  course  between  Bois  Blanc  Island 
on  the  right  and  Sugar  Island  on  the  left,  the  little  ves- 
sel was  soon  breasting  the  rapids  between  the  long,  low- 
hiiig  Grosse  Isle  and  the  clay  bluffs  of  the  mainland. 
T  e  swift-running  waters  eddied  and  swirled  about  the 
stiu^-iiling  vessel,  as  if  to  protest  against  the  passage  of 
tiws  sturtly  little  pioneer  of  the  mighty  fleets  which  in 
these  modern  days  make  that  strait  the  greatest  com- 
111  rcial  pathway  in  the  world. 

Father  Hennepin  was  so  moved  with  the  beauty  of 
t   '  scene  spread  out  before  him  tliat  he  would  have 

0  en  over  all  thoughts  of  further  explorations  in  order 
to  stay  and  enjoy  the  delights  of  what  seemed  to  him 
an  earthly  paradise.  He  even  urged  upon  La  Salle  the 
a- 1  vantages  of  a  settlement  at  some  point  on  the  strait. 
The  white-fish  were  excellent,  he  said ;  and  a  post  there 
V  oiilJ  keep  the  Iroquois  in  check.     The  pious  father 

1  ither  explains  that  his  real  reason  for  wishing  to  re- 
iiiain  was  that  he  might  have  a  chance  '*  to  preach  the 
'.  -pel  to  those  ignorant  nations*';  but  La  Salle  cut 
-  >rt  all  such  ideas  by  the  icy  remark  to  the  priest,  that 
e  nsidering  the  great  passion  he  had  a  few  months  be- 
i'le  for  the  discovery  of  a  new  country,  his  present 
Fr')posaJ  was  quite  unaccor ratable. 

31 


THE    NORTHWEST    UXDER   THKEE    FLAi.v 

i 

As  the  O/'/J/i/i  rounded  tin*  lieadlami  tliat  rominand; 

the  site  of  Detroit,  a  canoe,  shooting  out  fi'om  the  rush 
that  fringe  the  shore,  glided  alongside  the  ship.     A 
iron  hand'  ckitched  the  low  bnl'.varks  and  Tonty  spra\ 
aboard,     lie  had  been  sent  forward  to  look  after  li 
fifteen  men  whom  La  Salle  had  despatched  to  the  upi 
hikes  to  buy  furs  as  a  cargo  for  the  vessel;  but  on  b( ;:. 
overtaken  by  the  Grijfin^  Tonty  joined  his  leader,  ;i' 
doubtless  La  Salle  was  well  pleased  to  have  the  c<. 
panionship  of  the  one  man  whose  devotion  was  as 
questioned  as  his  courage  was  unlimited,  and  whose  u 
failing  good  humor  and   ingenuity  well  fitted  him  i 
succeed  in  daring  enterprises. 

On  the  12th  of  August  the  Griffin^  skirting  the  mar- 
shores  of  the  long  island  that  parts  the  waters  of  ti 
Detroit  River  at  its  head,  glided  out  upon  the  surf;; 
of  a  small  and  shallow  lake.     It   was  Sainte  Clair 
day,  and  Father  Hennepin  was  not  slow  to  suggest  tli; 
the  name  of  the  founder  of  his  order  be  given  to  a  boil 
of  water  as  beautiful  and  as  even-tempered  as  Clar 
d' Assisi  is  reputed  to  have  been.     The  twenty  miles 
lake   passed   over,   Pilot   Lucas   saw^  before   him    vas; 
stretches  of  rushes,  among  which  the  waters  from  the 
river  above  sought  the  lake  through  m.any  a  serpen  tint 
channel.     One  way  after  another  was  sounded,  until  a: 
last  a  passage  was  found  and  the  Griffin  pursued  he: 
course  up  the  island-strewn  river.     The  way  into  Lakt 
Huron  was  blocked  by  a  strong  northwest  wind;  and  i: 
was  not  until  August  23d,  after  a  voyage  of  twelve  day; 
from  Lake  Erie,  that  the  vessel,  hauled  from  the  shore 
by  a  dozen  men,  and  aided  by  a  brisk  southerly  breeze, 


'  Tonty  had  lost  one  hand  in  tlie  wars,  and  its  place  was  suppliec 
with  an  iron  hook,  hence  his  name,  Tonty  of  tlie  Iron-hand. 

32 


Tin:    FRKXCIl    OCCUPY    TlIK    NORTJIWKST 

overcame  the  rapids  and  was  tossed  by  tlie  waves  of  the 
great  lake.     Then  the  sliip's  company  sang  Tc  Deum 
"to  return  thanks   to  the  Almi<.4ity  for  their  happy 
navigation." 
On  the  24th  the  Griffin  ran  across  Saginaw  Bay,  then 

s  ViO"^  the  terror  of  timid  ones,  by  reason  of  the  high 
winds  that  sweep  across  it.  Then  for  two  days  she  lay 
becalmed  among  the  rocky  and  pine -clad  islands  of 
Tliunder  Bay.  On  the  fourth  day  there  came  a  storm. 
The  crew  sent  down  the  mam-3'ard  and  to})mast,  and 
then  fell  on  their  knees  in  prayer.  Even  La  Salle  gave 
np  hope,  and  began  to  prepare  for  death  with  the  oth- 
ers, excepting  only  Pilot  Lucas,  whom,  says  Hennepin, 
"  we  could  never  force  to  pray  ;  and  he  did  nothing  all 
fchat  while  but  curse  and  swear  acrainst  M.  la  Salle,  who, 
as  he  said,  had  brought  him  thitiier  to  make  him  perish 
in  a  nasty  lake,  and  lose  the  glory  he  had  acquired  by 
his  long  and  happ}^  navigations  on  the  ocean."  But  fate 
j}3ared  Pilot  Lucas  for  a  few  months  longer.  Hennepin 
had  vowed  an  altar  to  St.  Anthonv  of  Padua,  and  was 

mulent  enough  to  promise  that  it  should  be  set  up  in 
the  far-distant  Louisiana. 

The  storm  died  away  as  quickly  as  it  arose,  and  the 
d-'scending  sun  made  a  background   of   glory  against 
iwhich  the  wooded  cliifs  of  the  turtle-shaped  island  of 
Michilimackinac  stood  out  in  the  clear  air,  a  grand  sen- 
tinel guarding  the  harbor  of  St.  Ignace.     Kext  day  the 
chors  dropped  into  the  clear  waters  of  the  harbor, 
d  lay  plainly  visible  on  the  white  bottom  of  the  lake. 

ulverin  and   arquebus   boomed   a  salute,  which  was 

ken  up  and  tossed  to  and  fro  from  island  cliff  to  pine- 
ipped  cape.     The  booming   guns  brought  crowds   of 

elping  Indians  from  their  bark  huts,  straggling  French 
raders  from  their  cabins,  and  two  or  three  black-robed 
c  33 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

priests  from  the  little  inission-house.  La  Salle,  finely 
dressed,  and  wearing  a  scarlet  cloak  richly  trimmed 
with  gold  braid,  landed  w^ith  his  men,  and  all  sought 
the  rough  little  chapel  in  the  Ottawa  village,  to  give 
thanks  for  a  safe  voyage.  The  Ottawas  in  their  canoes 
accompanied  tiie  new-comers  back  to  the  ship,  surround- 
ing the  '•  big  canoe,"  as  they  called  the  Griffin^  and 
heaping  the  vessel's  deck  with  the  white-fish  and  trout 
so  pleasing  to  the  palate  of  Father  Hennepin.  The  next 
day,  when  La  Salle  visited  the  palisaded  town  of  the 
Hurons,  these  Indians  greeted  him  with  a  salute  of 
musketry,  the  Europeans  having  told  them  that  was 
the  highest  form  of  compHment. 

Of  the  fifteen  men  w^hom  La  Salle  had  sent  before 
him  to  buy  furs  for  the  return  voyage  of  the  Grijfin, 
four  w^ere  found  at  St.  Ignace.  They  had  squandered 
their  goods,  and  had  wasted  the  proceeds  in  riotous  liv- 
ing. Two  others  had  escaped  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
whither  La  Salle  sent  Tonty  to  fetch  them.  The  leader, 
however,  sailed  before  his  lieutenant  returned.  Per- 
plexed and  annoyed  by  the  hostile  feelings  that  his 
jealous  crew  had  aroused  among  the  ever -suspicious 
Indians,  he  ^vas  led  to  push  on,  in  order  to  get  his  cargo 
before  his  enemies  could  tamper  with  the  tribes  of  the 
Illinois.  Fortune  favored  him.  At  Green  Bav  he  found 
a  friend  in  an  old  Pottawatomie  chief,  whose  boundless 
au.iiiration  for  Count  Frontenac  he  was  ready  to  extend 
to  all  who  bore  the  "great  chiefs''  commission.  Here, 
too,  he  found  in  waiting  a  cargo  of  furs  gathered  by  the 
few  faithful  ones  of  his  advance  party.  Elated  at  his 
success,  and  believing  himself  now  certain  to  secure  the 
means  of  continuing  his  explorations.  La  Salle  placed 
his  pilot  in  command  of  the  Griffin  for  the  return  voy- 
age, giving  him  ^yq  picked  men  for  a  crew.     He  him- 

34 


TIIK    FRENCH    OCCUl'V    THE    NOUTHWEST 

self  with  Hennepin  and  fourteen  others,  enibc'rked  in 
four  canoes  and  steered  southward. 

No  sooner  were  the  canoes  fairly  out  into  tlie  lake, 
than  one  of  those  sudden  Septeml^er  storms,  so  connnon 
on  Lake  Michigan,  came  down  upon  them  ;  and  it  was 
not  until  morning  that  the  tempest -tossed  voya«(ers 
came  safe  to  land.  They  skirted  tlie  Michigan  shore  as 
far  as  the  St.  Joseph  River,  where  thuy  waited  twenty 
davs  for  Tonty.  He  brought  no  tidings  of  the  Gr[ffin^ 
and  it  was  several  months  before  La  Salle  learned  for  a 
certainty  that  the  same  storm  which  had  so  nearly 
proved  his  own  destruction  had  sent  to  the  bottom  his 
j  little  vessel  and  all  the  high  hopes  that  depended  upon 
I  it.  AVhether  the  loss  was  due  to  the  pilot's  carelessness 
or  to  his  treachery  is  not  known  to  this  day  ;  for  none 
of  tlie  crew  was  ever  again  heard  of.  Thus  disastrous- 
Iv  ended  the  only  voyage  of  the  first  vessel  on  the  L^pper 
Lakes. 

La  Salle,  with  Tonty,  Hennepin,  and  his  followers, 
made  his  slow  wav  south  until  he  came  to  the  banks 
of  the  Illinois.  Straightway  he  began  to  build  a  new 
vessel  in  which  to  voyage  dow^n  that  river  to  its  junc- 
tion with  the  Mississippi.  Once  more  hope  fired  his 
soul,  and  with  careful  forethought  he  made  his  plans. 
The  Gnffin  was  to  bring  the  anchors  and  rigging  for 
the  new  vessel;  but  so  certain  was  La  Salle  that  the 
Gnffin  had  been  lost  that,  with  a  courage  that  marks 
him  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  ^he  world's  explorers, 
he  determined  to  undertake  a  winter  journey  back 
over  the  thousand  miles  that  lay  between  him  and 
Fort  Frontenac,  in  order  to  obtain  the  necessary  sup- 
plies. 

Sending  the  reluctant  Hennepin  on  a  voyage  of  dis- 

coverv  down  the  Hlinois,  and  leavin^:  Tontv  in  charf^^e 

35 


TllH    NOIITIIWKST    UXDKH    TflliKK    FLAGS 

of  the  pitiful  little  fort  Crevecoeiir,'  La  Salle  took  a 
few  companions  and  began  his  perilous  March  journey 
through  half -frozen  swamps  and  across  (lco|)  rivers, 
where  his  way  was  constantly  endangered  by  liostile 
Indians,  lieaching  his  old  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
J  oseph  River,  and  there  learning  beyond  the  shadow  of  a 
doubt  that  the  Gri-ffin  had  been  wrecked,  the  little  party 
struck  across  Michigan.  Through  dense  woods  where 
the  thorns  tore  their  clothes  into  strips  and  cut  their 
hands  and  faces  till  thev  streamed  with  blood,  for  three 
days  they  made  their  slow  way.  Then  their  fainting 
spirits  were  revived  by  broad  stretches  of  prairie  bor- 
dered by  groves  of  oak,  the  home  of  deer,  bear,  and  wild 
turkey.  These  "oak  openings"  were  at  this  time  the 
battle-ground  for  a  half-dozen  tribes  of  Indians,  no  one 
tribe  being  able  to  hold  a  land  so  rich  in  game  and  with 
so  fertile  a  soil. 

A  rapid  journey  of  two  days  brought  them  to  a  series 
of  marshes,  through  which  they  waded  painfully  for 
three  long  days,  with  hostile  Indians  on  their  track,  so 
that  they  dared  light  no  fire  at  night.  Once  they  took 
off  their  water-soaked  clothes,  and  rolling  themselves  in 
their  blankets,  lay  down  to  sleep  on  a  dry  knoll.  When 
morning  came  they  were  forced  to  make  a  fire  to  thaw 
out  their  frozen  garments,  and  the  smoke  quickly  be- 
trayed their  presence  to  a  band  of  Illinois ;  but  Avlien 
the  Indians  found  that  La  Salle's  party  were  not  Iro- 
quois, t^^ey  suffered  the  white  men  to  go  in  peace. 

Ten  viaj^s  out  from  St.  Joseph,  they  came  upon  the 

■  La  Salle  might  well  have  selected  the  name  Crevecceur  (broken- 
lieart)  to  express  the  plight  into  which  his  expedition  liad  come.  But 
to  him  the  term  doubtless  had  no  such  meaning.  Crevecceur  was  the 
name  of  a  celebrated  French  fortress,  and  it  was  hope,  not  despair, 
that  led  to  the  selecLion  of  the  na.ne. 

36 


THE  fki:ncii  occupy  the  northwest 

broad  Detroit,  witliin  a  few  miles  of  those  islands  whence, 
seven  months  before,  they  had  looked  out  witii  such 
confidence  upon  the  future.  La  Salle  lost  no  time  in 
pushing  on  to  Fort  Frontenac,  where  he  arrived  after 
a  journey  in  all  of  sixty-five  days.  He  was  able  to  se- 
cure the  necessary  materials  for  his  vessel,  and  in  time 
he  became  master  of  the  ]\lississij)pi.' 

"With  the  narration  of  the  voyage  of  the  Gr[ffin  the 
tale  of  discoveries  along  the  Great  Lakes  is  full.  The 
Lake  Superior  region — the  first  of  all  Northwestern  ter- 
ritory to  be  explored  and  to  boast  of  settlements  —  a 
century  and  a  half  after  Marquette's  day  became  an  un- 
known and  despised  wilderness ;  and  statesmen  of  a  na- 
tion undreamed  of  by  the  founders  of  New  France  pro- 
nounced these  great  waterways  ''  be\^ond  the  furthest 
bounds  of  civilization — if  not  in  the  moon."'  The  vir- 
nfin  forests  that  La  Salle  was  the  first  white  man  to 
tread  were  not  to  echo  the  sound  of  the  settler's  axe  until 
the  tide  of  immigration,  sweeping  through  the  land  of 
the  once-dreaded  Iroquois,  forced  back  the  Huron  rem- 
nants as  it  spread  itself  over  those  territories  whence 
the  Frenchman,  and  his  English  successors  as  well,  con- 
tidently  expected  to  draw  an  annual  wealth  of  furs.  The 
star  of  empire,  that  moved  so  rapidly  westward  during 
the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  centurv,  was  to  ex- 
perience  more  than  fifty  years  of  wellnigh  total  eclipse 
before  it  again  became  the  guide  of  the  explorer. 

'  In  1781,  La  Salle  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  and  named 
the  valley  Louisiana.  In  1787,  while  on  his  way  up  the  great  river  to 
Canada,  he  was  murdered. 

*  Henry  Clay's  speech  in  1829  on  Senator  Norvell's  bill  to  grant 
lands  to  build  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  canal. 


CHAPTER  II 
CADILLAC  FOUNDS  DETROIT 

The  closinf^  decade  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  a 
joyous  period  for  New  France.  The  great  Frontenac 
well  expressed  the  feelings  of  the  people  whom  he  gov- 
erned when,  in  spite  of  his  seventy  years,  he  sprang  into 
the  midst  of  a  circle  of  Indians  gathered  at  Quebec  and 
danced  the  war -dance  to  celebrate  his  victories.  In 
1690,  simulating  a  confidence  he  was  far  from  feeling, 
he  had  sent  back  to  New  P^nij^land  in  disgrace  the  fleet 
with  which  Sir  William  Pliips  had  confidently  expected 
to  capture  Quebec;  and  the  land-forces  which,  under 
the  leadership  of  Fitz-John  Winthrop,  were  to  overrun 
Canada,  never  reached  the  borders  of  that  countrv. 
Then,  too,  the  Indian  trade,  which  had  been  practically 
cut  off  by  the  raids  of  the  Iroquois,  began  once  more  to 
animate  the  too -long -closed  warehouses  of  Montreal; 
and  France  was  in  a  position  to  assume  the  aggressive 
in  all  her  territory  from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
through  the  chain  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  thence  down 
the  ^lississippi,  a  region  made  hers  by  right  of  the  dis- 
coveries of  Marquette  and  Joliet  and  of  La  Salle. 

Throughout  the  region  of  the  upper  lakes,  however, 
the  English  were  from  time  to  time  sending  their  scouts, 
the  Iroquois,  to  open  avenues  of  trade.  Unhampered 
by  monopolies  or  other  fetters  of  feudalism,  the  English 
could  sell  goods  a  third  chea[)er  than  could  their  ene- 

38 


Bji  H.  MOLL  Geographer  i:2o 


MOLL  S   MAP   OF   TUE   NOIlTinVEST   IN'  1120 

(Ht''-  pag-:  IGJj 


(AIM  I.LAC    FOUNDS    DKTIMHT 

mies,  and  at  the  sanio  tinio  nialco  a  laro:<M'  |)r()fit.  Then, 
jif^jun,  no  conscientious  scruples  seein  to  hiivn  dettMTcd 
the  English  from  supplying  the  In<lians  with  all  the 
rum  they  had  furs  to  pay  for;  whereas  the  French, 
tliroufjh  their  missionaries,  had  some  rofjard  for  tho 
morals  of  the  persons  they  were  bent  on  converting. 

To  check  I>ritish  advances  I)u  Lhut,  sent  with  liftv 
soldiers  to  the  Detroit  region  in  108G,  built  Fori  St. 
Joseph,  at  the  hear!  of  the  St.  Clair  River,  near  the  present 
site  of  Port  Huron;  and  the  next  year  ITenrv  de  Tontv 
came  across  southern  Michigan  from  his  station  in  tho 
Illinois  countrv  to  tho  Detroit  River,'  where  ho  met  his 
cousin  Du  Lhut  from  the  St.  Clair,  and  La  Foi'est  and 
Durantaye  from  Michilimackinac,  all  going  to  assist 
Frontenac  in  chastising  the  Iroquois.  On  the  way  down 
from  Michilimackinac,  the  two  Frenchman  had  the  fort- 
une to  fall  in  with  and  capture  thirty  Englishmen  who 
had  been  sent  by  the  indefatigable  Governor  Dongan,  of 
New  York,  to  capture  that  post;  and  a  second  English 
party,  despatched  to  reinforce  the  first,  was  taken  on 
Lake  Erie.  For  fourteen  years  Fort  St.  Joseph  was 
maintained — at  least,  we  have  M.  de  Longueuil's  report 
of  two  conferences  which  ho  held  with  various  tribes  of 
Indians  in  the  Detroit  countrv  in  1700,  and  in  these"  he 
speaks  of  "my  fort  at  Detroit"  being  garrisoned  by  a 
small  body  of  French.  The  object  of  his  negotiations 
was  to  induce  the  Indians  to  take  the  war-path  against 
the  English  on  the  Ohio,  to  extirpate  "that  scum,"  and 
to  pillage  their  goods.  La  Ilontan,  who  passed  up  the 
Detroit  in  the  September  of  1687,  locates  Fort  St.  Joseph 
on  his  map  of  that  year.     This  fort,  or  earthwork,  built 

*  Louisiana  Collections,  p.  69, 

^  New  York  Collections  Colonial  MS.,  voL  ix.,  p.  704. 

39 


TIIH:    NOUTJIWEST    UNDKU    TlIllKE    l-LAiiS 

by  I)u  Lhut  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Huron,  was  officially 
known  as  the  lort  at  Detroit  years  before  the  founda- 
tion of  the  city  that  now  bears  the  name  once  given  to 
the  entire  reirion  between  Lakes  Erie  and  Huron.  It  is 
prol)able,  however,  that  instead  of  being  inaintained  as  a 
permanent  post,  Fort  St.  Joseph  was  simjily  a  summer 
headquarters  for  detachments  sent  out  as  need  was  to 
hold  the  English  in  check.  This  would  account  for  the 
fact  that  La  Hontan,  on  his  larger  map,  marks  it  as  an 
abandoned  post;  and  would  also  explain  the  lack  of  any 
mention  of  it  in  connection  with  Cadillac's  rule  over  the 
upper  lake  territory/ 

In  1691:,  Michilimackinac  seemed  to  be  the  strat^^ic 
point  for  the  fur-trade:  and  in  order  to  strengthe.x  that 
post  Frontenac  sent  thither  xintoine  de  Lamothe  Cadil- 
lac, a  man  after  the  govei^nor-generaPs  own  heart.  Shea, 
the  great  historian  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  colonial 
times,  characterizes  Cadillac  as  "chimerical,  grasping, 
overbearing,  regarding  religion  to  be  used  for  the  pur- 
poses of  government  or  as  an  element  of  trade."  This 
is  a  half-truth.    Cadillac  was  a  born  soldier,  resource- 

'  Briefly  the  history  of  Fort  St  ose  h  is :  Built  by  Du  Lhut  in 
1686 ;  abainloiu'd  as  a  regular  pc  .  in  16f^!5 ;  occupied  as  a  military 
station  by  the  Etjglish  in  1763  ;  Governor  Patrick  Sinclair  builds 
foi'titication  on  the  site  of  St.  Chiir  in  1785  ;  artillery  encampment  at 
St  Clair,  iuid  skirmish  between  Americans  and  British  in  1812 ;  in 
May,  1814,  Fort  St.  Joseph  rebuilt  and  named  Fort  Gratiot,  after 
Ciptain  Charles  Gratiot,  U.  S.  A. ,  the  constructing  engineer;  1822. 
post  abandoned  ;  1828,  reoccupied  ;  1832,  cholera  scourge  carries  off 
many  soldiers  stationed  tliere  on  their  way  to  the  Black  Hawk  War, 
1849,  fort  repaired  ;  1858,  occupied  by  caretakers  ;  1862-5,  occupi«;d  as 
recruiting-station  ;  1879,  abandoned  and  land  sold.  It  was  in  1861, 
while  his  father  was  caretaker  of  Fort  Gratiot,  that  Thomas  A.  Edison 
there  erected  his  first  electrical  battery  and  began  those  experiments 
tiiat  have  made  hiin  famous. — See  Michigan  Pioneer  Collections,  vol. 
xi.,  p.  249. 

40 


CADILLAC    FOUNDS    DETROIT 

ful,  prompt,  and  vigorous.  He  was  also  a  soldier  of  fort- 
une; and  he  had  come  to  Xew  France  to  achieve  wealth 
through  government  concessions  vigorously  prosecuted. 
In  those  days  the  soldier  was  expected  to  live  ofT  the 
country.  He  fought  the  king's  enemies  indeed,  but  at 
the  same  time  he  protected  hi^  own  property,  and  he  re- 
garded the  Indian  rather  as  a  hunting-machine  than  as 
a  brand  to  be  plucked  from  the  burning.  Hence  the 
Church  historian  of  to-day  has  no  more  liking  for  th? 
memory  of  La  Salle  or  of  Cadillac  than  the  missionaries 
had  for  them  personally.  Indeed,  when  he  reached  his 
new  ■  uoC.  ^.;dillac  was  already  under  the  ban  of  the 
Jesuits.  Jni'-r  ^  the  winter  of  1693,  he  was  a  member 
of  the  mi  ^.-w  ^rcle  that  Frontenac  had  gathered  about 
him  at  Quebec.  The  officers,  to  beguile  the  long  winter 
evenings,  arranged  some  theatricals,  and  rumor  had  it 
that  one  of  the  plays  to  be  presented  was  Moliere's 
"Tartuffe,"  in  which  the  falsehood,  lust,  greed,  and 
ambition  of  the  priesthood  are  depicted.  The  storm  of 
anathemas  that  swept  over  Canada  had  a  violent  centre 
at  ?'"*ickinac,  and  Cadillac  on  reaching  his  new  station 
found  that  the  pious  Jesuits  at  that  post  had  prejudiced 
the  officers  against  their  commandant.  His  prompt 
action  in  imprisoning  the  insubordinate  ones,  while  it 
established  his  own  attthority,  resulted  on  the  part  of 
the  Jesuits  in  an  even  more  intense  opposition  to  him 
and  his  plans. 

In  order  to  pat  a  stop  to  the  Indian  intrigues,  Cadillac 
resorted  to  measures  which  even  the  savages  were  at  no 
loss  to  understand.  The  Iroquois  had  invited  the  Lake 
Indians  to  a  council  on  the  banks  of  the  Detroit,  and 
one  evening  after  this  meeting  had  }',en  decided  upon 
the  ilurons  brought  to  Michilimackinac  seven  Iroquois 

prisoners.     As  the   party  landed   upon   the  beach,  the 

41 


THE    NORTHWEST    I'XDEK    TllKEE    FLAGS 

French,  acting  under  orders,  stabbed  two  of  the  Iroquois. 
Tlie  Hiirons  promptly  defended  the  others,  but  finally 
were  pi'e vailed  upon  to  give  a  chief  into  the  hands  of 
the  whites,  who  at  once  sent  to  the  Ottawas  an  invita- 
tion to  drink  the  broth  of  an  Iroquois.  The  victim  was 
first  tied  to  a  stake,  then  tortured  by  burning  with  a 
gun-barrel  heated  red-hot,  and  was  finally  cut  in  pieces  and 
eaten  by  the  assembled  Indians.  At  another  time  four 
Iroquois  prisoners  taken  in  battle  by  parties  sent  out  by 
Cadillac,  were  burned  alive,  in  order  to  stir  up  strife  be- 
tween the  Lake  Indians  and  the  Iroquois ;  and  Cadillac 
promised  that  ^'if  they  bring  any  prisoners  to  me,  I  can 
assure  you  their  fate  will  be  no  sweeter  than  that  of  the 
others." 

In  spite  of  such  summary  measures,  however,  Cadillac 
was  unable  to  keep  his  Indians  from  being  tampered  with 
while  on  their  way  back  from  Montreal.  The  Iroquois 
were  mingling  with  the  Detroit  Indians,  and  the  only  rem- 
edy was  war.  By  selling  all  he  possessed  and  giving  his 
Indians  credit,  he  succeeded  in  getting  the  chief  Onaske 
to  take  the  war-path  with  a  strong  party  of  braves.  So 
vigoi'ous  was  the  chase  that  forty  Iroquois,  in  order  to  es- 
cape their  pursuers,  jumped  into  a  river  and  were  drown- 
ed, thirty  scalps  and  as  many  prisoners  were  taken,  and 
four  or  five  hundred  beaver-skins,  which  the  Iroquois  in- 
tended to  exchange  for  English  iroods,  were  seized  as 
booty.  This  success  put  a  stop  to  Iroquois  advances  un- 
til Cadillac  \vas  ready  to  meet  them  more  than  half  way.^ 

'  Ou  the  return  of  this  war  part}-  Cadillac  opened  ten  kegs  of  bran- 
dy, and,  wlien  the  missionaries  remonstrated,  be  replied:  "If  a  little 
hilarity  grieve  you  so  much,  how  will  }  ou  be  able  to  endure  daily  ex- 
posure of  these  neophytes  to  unlimited  English  rum  and  heresy  ?" — See 
iT.  Y.  Col.  Doc,  vol.  ix.,  p.  64o  ;  also,  Parkmau's  if^//  Century  of  Cgii- 
flict,  vol.  i.,  chap.  2. 

42 


CADILLAC    FOUNDS    DETROIT 

Even  to  a  much  duller  mind  than  Cadilhic's  it  would 
have  been  clear  that  the  place  to  check  the  advances  of 
the  Iroquois  was  not  at  Michilimackinac,  but  on  the 
Detroit,  through  which  narrow  strait  all  travel  and  com- 
merce must  pass  on  their  way  between  the  lower  and 
the  upper  lakes.  This  was  also  the  key  to  the  ^lissis- 
sippi  region  ;  and  Robert  Livingston  had  already  made 
up  his  mind  that  if  England  should  only  seize  and  hold 
the  Detroit,  the  French  fur-trade  would  be  ruined.  Con- 
fident that  he  could  easily  persuade  his  superiors  of  the 
absolute  necessity  of  occupying  the  strategic  position  at 
the  Detroit,  and  equally  sure  that  he  saw  a  fine  opening 
to  make  a  fortune,  Cadillac  went  to  Quebec  and  there 
explained  his  ideas  to  a  distinguished  company  of  trad- 
ers, headed  by  Callieres,  the  Governor,  and  Champigny, 
the  Intendant.  A  more  politic  advocate  would  hav^e 
satisfied  himself  with  presenting  the  military  and  com- 
mercial features  of  his  plans,  but  the  impetuous  Cadillac 
laid  ofreat  stress  on  the  social  and  moral  reformation  he 
proposed  to  effect  by  teaching  the  natives  to  speak  the 
FrcL^h  language.'  He  was  on  record  as  believing  that 
the  onlv  fruits  of  the  Jesuit  missions  consisted  in  the 
baptism  of  infants  who  died  upon  reaching  the  age  of 
reason  ;  and  that  while  the  Jesuits  were  ostensibly  em- 
ployed in  the  vain  labor  of  saving  souls,  still  they  found 
ample  time  to  enrich  their  order  by  traffic  in  furs.  It 
was  nc  wonder,  therefore,  that  Cadillac  met  the  open 
and  powerful  opposition  of  the  Intendant.  Champigny, 
who  voiced  the  sentiment  of  his  friends  the  Jesuits  when 
he  argued  that  if  the  savages  were  to  be  saved  they 
must  be  kept  as  far  as  possible  from  the  vices  of  civil- 

*  Cadillac's  correspondence  in  regard  to  the  Detroit  settlement  is 
calendared  in  the  Canadian  archives  for  1887.  It  is  also  printed  in 
vol.  V.  of  Margry. 

43 


THE    NOUTllWEST    UNDEU    TIIKKE    FLAGS 

ization.  Cadillac  did  not  realize,  and  indeed  it  has  re- 
mained for  writers  (A  our  own  day  U)  point  out,  that  to 
the  savages  the  virtues  of  civilization  are  no  less  destruc- 
tive than  are  its  vices.  Thr  clc^hing,  ammunition,  und 
other  presents  provided  by  the  whites  begot  among  the 
Indians  a  comparative  luxury  and  ease  of  living  that 
created  a  demand  for  brand  v.' 

Unable  to  persuade  the  near-sighted  authorities  at 
Quebec,  Cadillac  carried  his  case  over  seas  and  made  his 
arguments  before  Count  Pontchartrain,  the  colonial  min- 
ister of  Louis  XIV.  Into  the  half-willing  ear  of  the 
minister  the  impetuous  soldier  poured  the  torrent  of  his 
plans  for  a  pertnanent  post,  with  its  garrison,  its  traders, 
its  schools,  and  its  tribes  of  friendly  Indians,  all  working 
together  for  the  advancement  of  France  and  the  con- 
fusion of  her  enemies,  the  Iroquois  imd  the  English. 

When  the  somewhat  sceptical  minister  inquired  how  a 
post  at  the  Detroit  would  keep  the  Indians  from  resort- 
ing to  the  English,  the  wily  Cadillac  replied  that,  al- 
though the  unll  to  go  to  the  English  and  deal  in  the 
cheapest  markets  would  still  be  present,  yet  "each  sav- 
age, one  with  another,  kills  per  year  only  fifty  or  sixty 
beavers,  and,  as  he  is  neighbor  to  the  Frenchman,  fre- 
quently borrows  of  him,  paying  in  proportion  to  the  re- 
turns bv  the  chase.  AVith  what  little  remains  to  him 
the  Indian  is  compelled  to  make  purchases  for  his  famdy. 
Thus  he  finds  himself  unable  to  go  to  the  English,  be- 
cause his  remaining  goods  are  not  worth  carrying  so  far. 
.  .  .  Another  reason  is  that  in  frequenting  the  French  he 
receives  many  caresses;  they  are  too  cunning  to  allow  his 

•  Benjamin  Kidd  in  his  Soc  I  Evolution,  p.  47,  quotes  with  ap- 
proval the  remark  of  another  that  among  the  cuiiises  to  which  the  de- 
cay of  the  New  Zealand  natives  might  be  attributed  are  "drink,  dis- 
ease, European  clothing,  peace,  and  wealth." 


CADILLAC    FOrNDS    DETIIOIT 

furs  to  escape,  especially  when  they  succeed  in  inakiiif^ 
him  eat  and  drink  with  tlieni." 

CailiUac's  reasoninj[^  seemed  <^ood,  botli  to  Count  Pont- 
chartrain  and  also  to  Louis  XIV.,  who  at  the  time  was 
collecting  his  resources  and  recruiting  his  strength  to 
get  control  of  the  Spanish  succession.  The  fact  that 
little  monev  from  the  royal  treasury  was  asked  for  doubt- 
less  made  Cadillac's  path  an  easier  one;  but  tliore  can 
be  no  doul)t  that  the  commander's  eneri^-v,  his  uncom- 
promising  nature,  and  his  apparent  mastery  over  the 
conditions  of  frontier  life  won  for  him  unusual  conces- 
sions in  the  way  of  trade  and  land,  concessions  that  were 
held  the  more  precious  in  royal  eyes  because  of  the  very 
fact  that  thev  were  so  intan^i^ible  and  so  distant.' 

Cadillac  was  promised  protection  against  his  enemies, 
the  Jesuits;  enough  money  and  men  to  carry  out  his 
enterpnse,  and  a  tract  of  land  fifteen  arpents  (acres) 
squcu'e,  "  wherever  on  the  Detroit  the  new  fort  should  be 
kcated."  Thus  equipped  he  set  sail  for  America;  and 
on  June  2,  1701,  he  left  La  Chine  with  fifty  soldiers  and 
an  equal  number  of  Canadians.  Alphonse  de  Tonty,  a 
brother  of  La  Salle's  companion,  was  Cadillac's  captain, 
and  for  lieutenants  he  had  M.  Dugue  and  ^L  Chacor- 
nacle.  Taking  the  old  route  of  Indians  and  traders,  in 
order  to  avoid  the  Iroquois,  the  party  paddled  up  the 
Ottawa  River,  made  the  thirty  portages  to  Lake  Ni pis- 
sing, thence  to  Georgian  Bay  and  by  Lake  Huron  down 
to  the  Detroit.  Arrivino^  on  the  21th  day  of  July,  Ca- 
dillac  immediately  set  about  making  a  strong  stockade 
of  wooden  pickets,  with   bastions  at  the  four  angles. 

'  The  docunipnts  relatiriL''  to  Ciidillac's  dealings  with  Count  Pontcliar- 
train  are  given  in  Sheldon's  E^rly  History  of  Michigan;  they  are  also  to 
be  found  in  pari  in  Murgry,  \oi.  v.  General  Cass  furnished  the  papers 
to  Mrs.  Sheldon. 

45 


TUi:    NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

Tnsitle  tho  palisade  a  few  stake-lionses  were  built.  To 
this  work  the  commaiidaiit  ;L;a\'e  the  name  of  Fort  Pont- 
chartrain,  aftt^  the  minister  to  whose  interest  it  was 
due.  The  chapel,  begun  on  the  feast-day  of  Saint  Ann, 
July  2r>,  was  named  in  her  honor,  and  this  name  the  suc- 
cessive churches  have  kept  to  this  day.  The  little  set- 
tlement that  sprang  uj)  about  the  fort  was  generally 
spoken  of  is  Detroit. 

The  control  of  the  trade  with  the  Indians  had  been 
granted  to  one  of  those  monopolies  which  at  that  day 
were  the  leading  feature  of  the  French  economic  policy. 
Among  the  directors  of  this  Company  of  the  Colony 
the  Jesuits  found  powerful  friends ;  for  the  sufficient 
reason  that  Cadillac's  new  enterprise  threatened  to  cre- 
ate a  body  of  independent  traders,  and  so  to  cut  into 
tlie  profits  of  t!ie  monopoly.  Moreover,  the  success  of 
the  settlement  at  Detroit  meant  the  abandonment  bv 
both  soldiers  and  Indians  of  the  post  at  Michilimackinac, 
and  hence  the  loss  of  an  old  and  prominent  mission.  Ac- 
commodating as  he  was  in  speech,  Cadillac  never  failed 
to  recognize  an  enemy,  and  never  lost  an  opportunity  to 
trample  his  foes  under  liis  feet.  To  Count  Pontchartrain 
he  wrote  that  the  only  way  to  get  along  with  the  Jesuits 
was,  "first,  to  let  them  do  as  they  please;  secondly,  to 
do  as  they  please;  and  thirdly,  to  say  nothing  of  what 
they  do.''  Then  with  a  nice  affectation  of  humility  he 
adds:  "  If  I  let  the  Jesuits  do  as  they  please,  the  savages 
will  not  establish  themselves  at  Detroit;  if  I  do  as  they 
would  desire,  it  will  be  necessary  to  abandon  this  post; 
and  if  I  say  nothing  of  what  they  do,  it  will  only  be 
necessary  for  me  to  pursue  my  present  course."  Three 
paragraphs  further  on  in  this  same  letter  the  old  Adam 
gets  the  better  of  the  commandant.    ''  Thirty  Ilurons,'' 

he  says,  "  arrived  from  Michilimackinac  on  the  28th  of 

46 


CADILLAC    rorXDS    UHTKOIT 

June  (1703).  There  remained  onlv  about  twenty-five. 
Father  Carheil,  who  is  missionary  there,  remains  always 
linn.  I  hope  this  Autumn  to  pkick  the  hist  feather  out 
of  Jiis  wing;  and  I  am  i)ersuaded  that  this  obstinate  old 
])riest  will  die  in  his  parish  without  a  single  parishioner 
U)  bury  him."  It  would  be  impossible  to  pay  a  higher 
tril)Ute  than  Cadilhic  unwittinolv  |)avs  to  the  zeal  and 
long-suffering  of  the  old  missionary,  who  saw  his  tlock 
lured  away  by  the  brandy  and  the  vices  at  the  new  fort. 
He  labored  on  until  1705,  being  sustained  by  the  com- 
])anionship  of  Father  Aveneau  from  St.  Joseph,  whence 
also  the  Indians  had  been  lured  to  Detroit.  Then  the 
two,  finding  themselves  without  parishioners,  burned 
their  chapel,  lest  it  should  be  profaned,  and  departed 
for  Quebec. 

The  eager  Cadillac  had  plans  for  a  copper-mine  on 
Lake  Huron ;  for  silk-culture  among  the  mulberry- trees 
of  Lake  Erie;  for  a  uniformed  ^..idian  militia;  for  a 
seminary  in  which  to  teach  the  French  language  to  the 
savages;  and  foi*  grants  of  lands  to  settlers.  In  short, 
he  designed  to  plant  at  Detroit  not  simply  a  trading- 
post,  but  a  colony.  He  spoke  of  himself  as  one  whom 
'*  God  had  raised  up  to  be  another  Moses  to  go  and  de- 
liver the  Indians  f}'om  captivity ;  or  rather,  as  Caleb, 
to  bring  them  back  to  the  lands  of  their  fathers.  .  .  . 
Meanwhile,  Montreal  (the  Jesuits)  plays  the  part  of 
Pharaoh ;  he  cannot  see  this  emigration  without  trem- 
bling, and  he  arms  himself  to  destroy  it." 

Cadillac  was  especially  incensed  against  the  Jesuits 

on  account  of  their  opposition  to  the  sale  of  spirits. 

So  strong  was  their  hostility  that  Louis  XIV.  in  1094, 

referred  to  the  Sorbonne  for  decision  of  the  question  of 

allowing  French  brandy  to  be  shipped  to  Michilimackinac. 

The  decision  of  the  council  gave  to  the  Northwest  its 

47 


TlIK    NOIlTinVEST    CXDKR    T  IIIl  E  K    FLAGS 

first  ])r(»]iil)itory  law;  and  the  comniandant  was  no 
more  willing  to  enforce  the  order  than  his  successors 
have  been  to  carry  out  similar  laws.  "  A  drink  of 
brandy  after  the  repast,''  he  maintained,  "seems  neces- 
sary to  cook  the  bilious  meats  and  the  crudities  which 
they  leave  in  the  stomach."  Again,  at  Detroit,  Cadillac 
quotes  from  a  sermon  by  Father  Carheil,  whose  wing  he 
was  engaged  in  plucKing.  The  Jesuit  had  maintained 
that  there  was  '*  no  power,  either  human  or  divine,  which 
can  permit  the  sale  of  this  drink."  **  Hence  you  per- 
ceive," argues  the  crafty  commandant, ''  that  this  father 
passes  boldly  on  all  matters  of  state,  and  will  not  even 
submit  to  the  decision  of  the  pope." 

The  question  w^as  indeed  a  hard  one  for  Cadillac,  lie 
understood  clearly  that  unless  he  had  liquor  to  sell  to 
the  savages  he  might  as  well  abandon  the  post ;  for  the 
Indians  would  go  -straight  to  the  English  at  Albany 
where  goods  were  cheap  and  rum  was  unlimited.  To 
give  up  Detroit  never  entered  into  Cadillac's  plans. 
He  therefore  chose  the  middle  course.  Instead  of  pro- 
hibition he  would  have  high  license.  In  the  restrictions 
which  he  threw  about  the  traffic  in  liquors  he  was  both 
honest  and  earnest ;  and,  as  events  proved,  he  was  far  in 
advance  of  his  times.  In  the  report  of  M.  d'Aigrement,* 
who  inspected  Detroit  in  1  <  08,  it  is  mentioned  as  one  of 
the  grievances  of  the  savages  against  Cadillac,  that  "in 
order  to  prevent  disturbances  which  would  arise  from 
the  excessive  use  of  brandy,  he  causes  it  all  to  be  put 
into  the  storehouse,  and  sold  at  the  rate  of  twenty  francs 
a  quart.  Those  who  will  have  it,  French  as  well  as 
Indians,  are  obliged  to  go  to  the  storehouse  to  drink,  and 


*  Mrs.  Sheldou  gives  this  report  in  full,  iii  her  Early  History  of 
Michigan. 

^.8 


CADILLAC    FOUNDS    DETROIT 

each  can  obtain,  at  one  time,  only  the  twenty-fourth 
i)art  of  a  quart.  It  is  certain  that  the  savages  cannot 
beconif.  intoxicated  on  that  quantity.  The  price  is  high, 
and  as  they  can  get  brandy  only  each  in  his  turn,  it  some- 
times happens  that  the  savages  are  obliged  to  return 
home  without  a  taste  of  this  beverage,  and  they  seem 
ready  to  kill  themselves  with  disappointment." 

It  is  refreshing  to  be  able  for  a  time  to  turn  from  the 
petty  squabbles  between  Cadillac  and  his  Jesuit  enemies, 
and  to  leave  the  bickerings  between  the  commandant 
and  the  traders  which  fill  so  many  pages  of  Margry,' 
in  order  to  trace  what  is  to  us  far  more  important — the 
beginnings  of  family  life  in  the  Northwest.  In  a  friendly 
letter  from  Pere  Germain  at  Quebec  to  Lamothe  Cadil 
lac,  at  Detroit,  dated  August  25, 1701,  the  writer  tells  of 
the  intense  desire  of  Madame  Cadillac  to  join  her  hus- 
band ;  and  he  quotes  the  reply  which  that  most  dutiful 
wife  made  to  the  dames  of  her  native  city,  when  they 
expostulated  with  her  for  proposing  to  brave  the  wilder- 
ness. '•  When  a  woman  loves  her  husband  as  she  ought," 
responded  the  plucky  wife, "  there  is  nothing  more  at- 
tractive than  his  society,  wherever  he  may  be.  All  else 
should  be  indifferent  to  her."  Suiting  the  action  to  the 
word,  she  started  with  Madame  Tonty  for  a  companion, 
and  so  soon  as  the  ice-bolts  had  unlocked  Detroit  in  the 
spring  of  1702,  the  two  women  arrived  safely,  and  each 
was  installed  as  the  mistress  of  a  stake-house  within  the 
palisades  of  Fort  Pontchartrain. 

'  While  Lewis  Cass  was  minister  to  France,  he  obtained  copies  of 
many  of  the  documents  relating  to  the  early  history  of  the  Northwest ; 
and  at  his  instigation,  Margry,  the  keeper  of  the  records  in  the  De- 
partment of  the  Marine,  began  to  gather  those  documents  which,  by 
the  aid  of  this  government,  he  has  published,  to  the  great  assistance  of 
historians. 

D  49 


THE    N0UT1I\»EST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

At  the  time  of  their  marriage  Cadillac  was  less  than 
thirty  years  old ;  and  already  he  had  seen  much  of  the 
world.  A  native  of  Gascony,  the  exact  place  of  Cadillac's 
birth  has  as  yet  defied  discovery  ;  nor  is  the  year  of  his 
birth  beyond  dis])ute.'  It  is  evident  from  his  writings, 
however,  that  he  was  educated  beyond  what  was  com- 
mon  in  those  days.  His  pen  was  ever  as  ready  as  his 
sword ;  and  both  were  absolutely  tireless.  He  fought 
his  enemies  incessantly,  both  with  the  rapier  of  his  keen 
wit  and  the  arquebus  of  his  multitudinous  arguments. 
Yet  he  was  naturally  of  a  kindly  disposition,  and  was 
the  sort  of  man  that  a  woman  would  follow  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  Married  on  the  25th  of  June,  1687,  to 
Marie  Therese  Guy  on,  of  Quebec,  it  is  probable  that  the 
early  years  of  their  married  life  were  spent  at  Port 
Eo3^al,  where  Cadillac  held  a  royal  grant  of  land;'  but 
a  long  separation  came  when  he  was  ordered  to  Michili- 
mackinac,  where  ways  were  rough  and  food  was  limited 
as  well  in  quantity  as  in  variety.'  ■'  ' 

The  wives  of  commandant  and  captain  having  led  the 

*  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  .Antoihe  de  la  Mothe  Cadillac,  by  C.  ISl. 
Burton  (Detroit,  1895),  p.  6.  Mr.  Burton's  researches  into  the  early 
life  of  Cadillac  have  been  both  painstaking  and  untiring.  He  hiis 
copies  of  all  of  Cadillac's  manuscripts  and  of  every  paper  to  be  found 
either  in  France  or  America  that  can  throw  any  light  on  Cadiihic. 
Silas  Farmer's  History  of  Detroit  and  Michigan  also  contains  much 
material  gathered  at  home  and  abroad.  A  short  sketch  of  Cadillac  is 
to  be  found  in  Parkman's  Half  Century  of  Conflict,  vol.  1.,  p.  17. 

'  Curiously  enough,  just  a  century  after  Cadillac's  marriage,  his 
granddaughter,  with  her  husband  and  three  children,  became  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  and  by  virtue  of  an  act  of  the  legislature  of 
Massachusetts  had  restored  to  them  the  holdings  of  Cadillac  at  a  time 
when  he  was  styled  Lord  of  Donaquec  and  Mont  Desert.  Many  of 
the  Mount  Desert  titles  are  based  on  this  royal  grant. 

^Cadillac  writes  of  the  Michilimackiuac  station:  "Neither  bread 
nor  meat  is  eaten  there,  and  no  other  food  is  to  be  had  but  a  little  fish 
and  Indian-corn."— iV.  T.  Col.  Boc,  ix.,  p.  586. 

50 


COUIiEUK  DE  IJOIS 


CADILLAC    FOUXDS    DKTUOIT 

way,  those  of  the  traders  and  soldiers  were  not  slow  to 
follow;  and  gradually  there  came  to  be  a  niiinber  of 
homes  at  Detroit,  with  all  that  the  word  home  tiiea  im- 
plied. On  the  oldest  of  the  now  extant  French  parish 
registers  in  the  west,  under  the  date  of  February  2, 1704, 
is  recorded  the  baptism  of  the  seventh  of  Cadillac's 
thirteen  children,'  and  in  the  course  of  the  ten  years  of 
his  sojourn  three  others  were  born  in  Detroit  and  were 
duly  baptized  by  the  priests  of  St.  Ann's.  The  same 
record  bears  witness  to  the  fact  that  the  wife  of  one  of 
the  habitans  at  Detroit  was  the  mother  of  no  fewer  than 
thirty  children  :  and  that  large  families  were  the  rule. 

If  we  were  to  believe  implicitly  the  glowing  accounts 
Cadillac  gives  to  Count  Pontchartrain  of  his  success  at 
Detroit,  then  never  was  a  colony  more  prosperous.  It 
is  true  that  in  1703  a  fire,  maliciously  started,  as  Cadil- 
lac says,  burned  the  houses  of  the  commandant  and  of 
Tonty,  together  with  the  church  and  a  portion  of  the 
palisades ;  that  Tonty  and  others  conspired  to  cheat  the 
Company  of  the  Colony  by  selling  the  company's  goods 
and  retaining  the  proceeds  ;^  that  the  Indians  were  ever 

'  Cadillac's  eldest  son  accompanied  his  father  as  a  cadet.  Another 
sou  went  to  Detroit  with  his  mother,  two  girls  being  left  in  school  at 
Quebec.  Shea  in  his  Ilis'tory  of  the  Catholic  Church  gives  a  fac-simile 
of  the  record  of  the  baptism.  The  register  itself  is  in  the  possession 
of  Mr.  R.  R.  Elliott  of  Detroit. 

'  Alphonse  Tonty,  Baron  of  Paludy,  was  born  in  1659;  he  became 
jealous  of  Cadillac  and  plotted  against  him,  and  out  of  this  plot  came 
the  incendiary  lire  of  1703  that  burned  a  considerable  portion  of 
Detroit,  including  the  first  St.  Ann's  Church,  the  house  of  the  Recol- 
lects, and  the  first  parish  register.  Tonty 's  daughter  TherC'sa  was  the 
first  child  known  to  have  been  born  in  Detroit.  Tonty  was  acting 
commandant  at  Detroit  from  1704  to  170C,  during  Cadillac's  absence 
at  Quebec  to  answer  charges  brought  against  liim;  and  also  from  1720 
till  his  death,  November  10,  1727.  He  was  buried  at  Detroit.  His 
son,  Charles  Henry  Tonty,  became  governor  at  Fort  St.  Louis  (Mobile), 
where  Henry  Tonty  died  in  1704. 

51 


TIIK    XOIITIIWRST    UXDEIl    TIIUI-K    FLAGS 

troublesome;  and  the  Jesuits  were  persistent  in  their 
efforts  to  ruin  the  enterprise.  But  Ciidillac  was  never 
for  a  moment  discouraged,  and  tiie  proof  that  he  was 
correct  in  his  ])redictions  as  to  the  ultimate  success  and 
im])ortance  of  the  post  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
Detroit  alone,  of  all  the  upper  lake  establishmentsjias 
continued  to  grow  in  strength  and  population  from  the 
day  it  was  founded  down  to  the  present  time. 

There  w^as  much  truth,  however,  in  the  official  report 
of  M.  d'Aigrement,  wlio  in  1708  spent  nineteen  July 
days  at  Detroit.  He  found  tliat  Cadillac  was  far  from 
being  popular  with  either  the  savages  or  the  colonists. 
Parent,  the  blacksmith,  complained  that  he  had  to  pa}^ 
annually  six  hundred  francs  and  two  casks  of  ale  for  the 
privilege  of  plying  his  trade;  and  besides  he  was  com- 
pelled to  keep  all  Cadillac's  horses  shod.  To  be  sure, 
the  commandant  had  but  one  horse,  vet  there  was  no 
certainty  that  he  would  not  have  fifty  others  the  next 
year.  Then,  too,  Pinet,'  the  gunsmith,  was  required  to 
repair  twelve  guns  each  month,  besides  paying  three 
hundred  francs  a  year.  The  people  also  grumbled  be- 
caused  Cadillac  took  as  grist  toll  an  eighth  instead  of  the 
customary  fourteenth  part,  although  it  was  admitted 
that  the  cost  o^  the  mill  had  been  excessive.  Of  the 
three  hundred  and  fiftv  roods  of  valuable  land,  Cadillac 

■ 

owmed  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven,  while  the  French 
owned  but  forty-six,  and  the  Ilurons  held  one  hundred 
and  fifty;  moreover,  the  commandant  required  the  sol- 
diers and  savages  to  break  his  land,  and  make  it  ready 

'  Joseph  Parent,  farmer,  master-tool  maker,  and  brewer,  came  to  De- 
troit in  1606,  under  a  contract  for  three  years  of  service  at  his  trades. 
Yves  Pinet,  gunsmith,  came  at  the  same  time  under  a  similar  contract. 
The  sums  mentioned  are  excessive  when  compared  with  the  usual 
rates  ehargt-d  by  Cadillac. 


CADILLAC    FOUNDS    DETUUlT 

for  pLanting.  Inside  the  fort  the  people  owned  twenty- 
nine  small  log -houses  thatched  with  grass.  Of  the 
sixty-three  settlers,  thirty -four  were  traders,  and  the 
only  profitable  articles  of  traffic  were  ammunition  and 
brandy,  the  Eufjlish  bein<j:  able  to  undersell  the  French 
in  all  other  commodities.  Cadillac  himself  bought  for 
four  francs  a  quart  the  brandy  that  he  sold  for  twenty 
francs;  he  charged  two  francs  and  ten  sous  a  front  rood 
for  grounds  within  the  palisades,  and  a  double  price 
for  corner  lots.  Besides,  each  trader  paid  an  annual 
tax  of  ten  francs  for  the  privilege  of  dealing  with  the 
Indians. 

"The  soil  is  poor,"  continues  d'Aigrement,  "and  is 
full  of  water;  it  is  fitted  to  raise  Indian -corn  and 
nothing  else;  the  cider  made  from  native  apples  is  as 
bitter  as  gall;  and  the  grasshoppers  eat  all  the  gar- 
den plants,  so  that  they  have  to  be  planted  three  and 
four  times  over."  "  On  the  whole,"  says  this  pessi- 
mistic investigator,  "the  post  was  a  mistake,  and  it 
should  be  abandoned." 

Admitting  the  truth  of  all  that  M.  d'Aigrement  has 
alleged,  the  colony  at  Detroit  experienced  only  the  vi- 
cissitudes usual  to  settlements  in  New  France.  The 
wilderness  develops  traits  not  pleasing  to  contemplate 
— jealousy,  insubordination,  and  tyranny  among  them; 
and  the  intensity  with  which  these  elements  of  dis- 
cord operate  depends  on  local  circumstances  and  on 
race  tendencies.  Both  Louis  XIY.  and  Count  Pont- 
chartrain  understood  the  situation;  and,  within  reason- 
able limits,  they  were  ready  to  support  the  zealous 
Cadillac. 

Struggling  resolutely  to  erect  at  Detroit  a  marquisate 

according  to  the  feudal  ideas  of  his  day,  in  1705  Cadillac 

wrested  from  the  Company  of  the  Colony  the  trading 

53 


THE    N  OUT  II  WEST    UNDER    TIIKEE    I  LAGS 

privileges  at  his  post,  and  in  addition  obtained  full  au- 
thority to  make  grants  of  town  lots  within  and  of  farms 
without  the  palisades.  The  fort  itself  belonged  to  him 
in  the  same  sense  that  a  French  castle  belonged  to  its 
lord;  even  the  chui'ch,  with  its  vestments,  its  bell,  and 
its  lock,  belonged  to  the  commandant;  the  brewery, 
the  forge,  the  grist-mill,  the  very  fruit-trees  brought 
in  boxes  from  Montreal,  idl  were  counted  among  Cadil- 
lac's personal  possessions.  His,  too,  was  that  appendage 
of  feudalism,  the  great  dove-cot  set  high  on  oak  posts; 
and  also  the  long  warehouse  with  press  for  baling  furs, 
and  the  barns  for  his  abundant  crops  of  wheat,  his  ten 
cattle,  and  his  horse-of-all-work,  known  throughout  the 
settlement  I  y  the  name  of  Colin. 

As  Cadillac  walked  the  narrow  St.  Ann  street,  his 
sword  ch'Tiking  at  his  heels,  and  his  rich  military  dress 
proclaiming  his  importance,  every  hat  was  doffed  at  his 
a])proach,  and  there  was  none  to  say  him  nay,  save  only 
Father  CLerubin  de  Deniaux,  the  Eecollect  priest  of 
St.  Ann.  According  to  their  custom  the  people  took 
their  petty  disputes  to  the  priest ;  but  justice,  such  as  it 
was,  came  from  the  commandant,  who  claimed  even  the 
power  of  life  and  death. 

The  space  within  the  palisades  was  of  a  width  of 
two  city  blocks  and  a  depth  of  one.  Besides  Cadil- 
lac's own  buildings  —  ten  in  number — the  holdings  of 
sixty-eight  others  are  known ;  and  thirteen  half-acre 
gardens  granted  to  soldiers  have  been  located.  Above 
the  fort  thirty-one  farms  were  apportioned  to  farmers 
who  lived  within  the  wooden  defences;  and  at  con- 
venient distances  villages  of  Ottawas,  Miamis,  Hurons, 
Loups,  and  Openagos  were  located,  while  even  the  in- 
quisitive Iroquois  v^ere  welcomed  as  visitors,  although 
they  were  not  encouraged  to  settle.     Altogether,  the 

54 


CADILLAC  FOUNDS  DKTKOIT 

town  could  boast  a  population  of  some  six  thousand  souls 
or,  better,  mouths.' 

The  king,  however,  had  other  work  for  the  restless 
and  ambitious  commandant  at  Detroit;  and  in  May, 
1710,  Pontchartrain  ordered  him  to  proceed  forthwith 
to  Louisiana  as  the  governor  of  the  province  that  La- 
Salle  and  Henry  Tonty  had  founded.  With  no  mind  to 
surrender  his  j)ruperty  without  full  compensation,  Cadil- 
lac so  far  disregarded  his  orders  as  to  go  down  to  Mont- 
real and  Quebec  to  settle  his  affairs,  leaving  his  capable 
and  business-like  wife  to  secure  a  full  and  exact  inventory 
of  his  possessions ;  and  when  in  June,  1713,  he  and  his 
family  landed  in  Louisiana,  he  was  conveyed  to  his  new^ 
station  directly  from  France,  as  became  his  station,  in  a 
French  frigate.  Natchez  o'i\'es  its  beginning  and  Lakes 
Pontchartrain  and  Maurepas  owe  their  na.nes  to  Cadil- 
lac ;  he  searched  the  Mississippi  valley  for  silver  and 
found  lead ;  but  there  as  at  Detroit  he  chafed  under  the 
conditions  surrounding  him,  and  in  1717  he  returned  to 
France  to  find  employment  as  governor  of  Castell  Sar- 
razin,  where  he  died  on  October  18,  1730.  In  vain  he 
tried  to  establish  his  claims  at  Detroit.  The  utmost  he 
could  obtain  was  an  offer  of  4359  livres,  m^.de  in  1720; 
but  this  he  rejected,  and  perhaps  his  governorship  was 
intended  as  the  gratitude  of  a  monarchy.' 

Cadillac  turned  over  to  his  successor,  Joseph  Guyon 
Dubuisson,  a  fairly   flourishing  establishment,  as  such 


'  "  Cadillac's  Village,  or  Detroit  under  Cadillac,  with  a  List  of  Prop- 
erty-owners and  a  History  of  the  Settlement  from  1701  to  1710,"  by 
Clarence  M.  Burton  (Detroit,  1896).  This  pamphlet  of  thirty -five 
pages  is  a  nearh^  complete  city  directory  of  Detroit  under  Cadillac, 
and  is  a  marvel  of  antiquarian  research  in  a  hitherto  unworked  field, 

■^  For  the  correspondence  relative  to  Cadillac's  claims,  see  Canadian 
Archives,  1887.  p.  cclxxvii. 

55 


THE    NORTHWEST    U  N  D  E  II   THREE    FLAGS 

ventures  went  in  those  (lavs.  No  sooner  had  Cadillac 
departed,  however,  than  a  thousand  and  more  Mascou- 
tins  and  Ottafjfaniies  fi'om  the  reorion  west  of  Green  Bav 
appeared  (1712)  at  Detroit  and  prepared  to  establish 
themselves  there.  Now  the  Mascoutins  were  deadly 
enemies  of  the  Ilurons ;  but,  unfortunately,  both  the 
Ilurons  and  Ottawas  were  away  on  their  winter  hunt, 
and  so  weak  was  the  garrison  that,  for  the  time  being, 
Dubuisson  was  forced  to  put  up  with  the  lawlessness  and 
insolence  of  the  new-comers.  They  killed  his  pigeons, 
took  whatever  goods  were  outside  the  fort,  and  began 
to  fortify  a  camp  fixed  within  hailing  distance  of  P'ort 
Pontchartrain.  In  his  consternation  Dubuisson  sent 
messengers  to  scour  the  woods  for  the  absent  hunters ; 
and  he  also  took  the  precaution  to  pull  down  the  church 
of  St.  Ann,  outside  the  palisades,  lest  it  should  afford 
a  lodgement  for  the  attacking  Indians.  Under  fire  he 
effected  the  removal  of  the  wheat  from  the  exposed 
storehouse  to  the  fort :  fortunately  the  cattle  had  not 
been  sent  to  pasture. 

About  the  middle  of  May,  as  Dubuisson  relates  in  his 
official  report,'  news  came  of  the  approach  of  the  hunt- 
ing-parties. The  two  swivels  were  mounted  on  logs  and 
provided  with  slings  of  iron  made  by  the  fort  black- 
smith ;  Father  Cherubin  held  himself  ready  to  give  a 
general  absolution,  and  to  assist  the  wounded.  Then 
Dubuisson  himself  mounted  the  bastion  and  watched 
for  the  expected  help.  Soon  his  straining  eyes  beheld  a 
movement  amontj  the  budding  trees  at  the  back  of  the 
long  farms,  and  from  the  thick  coverts  rushed  the  sava- 
ges— Illinois,  Missouris,  Osages,  Pottawatomies,  Sacs,  and 


'  This  report  is  given  entire  in  Smith's  History  of  Wisconsin,  vol.  iii. 
See  also  Parkman's  Half  Century  of  Conflict,  vol.  i.,  p.  269. 

56 


CADILLAC    FOUNDS    DETROIT 

Menominees — with  the  Ottawa  chief  Saguina  (Saginaw) 
at  their  head.  Never  before  had  Detroit  seen  such  a  col- 
lection of  j)ooj)le.  Running,  yelping,  waving  their  tril)al 
emblems,  the  red  host  made  i'oi'  the  Huron  vilhige,  but 
were  turned  to  the  fort  by  the  stay  -  at  -  homes,  who 
pointed  to  the  lires  in  the  enemy's  camp,  crying,  "  They 
are  burning  the  women  of  your  village,  Saguina,  and 
your  wife  is  among  them.  Hasten  to  our  father's  fort ; 
he  has  ever  luid  pity  on  you,  and  now  you  should  be 
willing  to  die  for  him." 

Into  the  fort  swarmed  the  allies,  and  on  the  parade- 
ground  held  a  council  with  the  commandant,  saying : 
*' Father,  last  year  you  drew  from  the  lires  our  flesh, 
which  the  Ottagamies  were  about  to  roast  and  eat.  Now 
we  bring  you  our  bodies  and  make  you  master  of  them. 
Care  for  our  women  and  children,  and  if  we  die  throw  a 
blade  of  grass  upon  our  bones  to  protect  them  from  the 
flies.  And  now  give  us  something  to  eat  and  tobacco  to 
smoke;  we  have  come  from  afar  and  have  neither  pow- 
der nor  balls  to  fifjht  with."  These  necessaries  beintj 
forthcoming,  the  siege  of  the  enemy  w^as  begun.  For 
nineteen  days  the  interlopers  were  kept  under  fire. 
Their  kindred  coming  to  join  them  were  taken  in  the 
woods,  and  first  were  made  targets  of  and  then  w^ere 
burned  for  sport ;  if  brave  or  squaw  ventured  to  the 
river  for  water,  death  was  almost  certain ;  if  they  dug 
holes  to  escape  the  fire  of  the  besiegers,  the  latter  fired 
down  on  them  from  high  towers. 

One  morning  the  French  saw  the  palisades  of  their 

enemies  hung  with  scarlet  blankets,  while  twelve  other 

such  sanguinary  emblems  flew  from  standards  set  up 

within  the  enclosure.     ''  These,"  the  Mascoutins  called  to 

the  fort,  ''  are  the  signals  of  the  English.     We  have  no 

father  but  the  English  king."    The  Pottawatomie  chief, 

67 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

however,  answered  that  the  Enghsh  were  the  enemies 
of  prayer,  so  that  the  jVfaster  of  Life  chastises  them  ; 
and  that  their  only  power  was  in  the  hcjuor  which  tiiey 
gave  to  the  Indians  to  poison  tliem.  Then  followed  un- 
availinf^  parleys,  during  which  the  enemies  showed  so 
bold  Ji  front  that  the  allies  became  discouraged  and 
threatened  to  go  away.  The  enemies,  they  said,  are 
braver  than  any  other  people  ;  it  is  useless  to  tight  them. 
The  French,  too,  began  to  talk  of  escaping  to  Michili- 
mackinac  ;  but  Dubuisson  was  able  to  put  heart  into 
them  all.  Deserters  told  that  in  the  beleaguered  palisade 
over  sixty  women  and  children  had  died  of  hunger  and 
thirst,  and  that  their  bodies  were  without  burial ;  and 
presents  and  promises  were  made  without  stint  to  the 
allies.  Then,  one  dark  and  rainy  night,  the  enemy 
slipped  awLy  to  Grosse  Pointe,  where,  after  four  days  of 
lighting,  the  end  came.  Of  the  three  hundred  braves 
behind  the  improvised  defences,  not  more  than  one-third 
escaped.  The  women  and  children  were  spared  ;  but 
the  men  were  reserved  for  the  sport  of  their  conquerors, 
who  killed  three  or  four  each  day.  So  the  first  siege  of 
Detroit  ended  in  a  bloody  victory  for  the  garrison,  and 
the  annihilation  of  the  Ottagamies  and  Mascoutins.  The 
price  of  the  victory  to  the  French  treasury  was  about 
three  thousand  livres ;  and  one-eighth  of  this  sum  was  re- 
quired to  pay  for  the  blankets,  leggings,  and  shirts  that 
formed  the  final  equipment  of  the  eight  principal  Indian 
allies  on  their  enforced  journey  to  the  happy  hunting- 
grounds. 

Misfortunes  elsewhere  aided  the  upbuilding  of  the  new 
colony  on  the  Detroit.  The  collapse  of  Law's  brilliant 
system  of  administerino^  the  financial  and  commercial 

«-■  CD 

affairs  of  France  in  1721  sent  to  America  many  a  ruined 
Frenchman,  and  not  a  few  found  refuge  at  Detroit. 

58 


CADILLAC    FOUNDS    DETROIT 

Among  the  new-comers  were  the  Chapoton,  Goyon, 
and  Lauderoute  families,  names  that  in  one  form  or 
another  are  still  numerous  in  the  Detroit  city  direc- 
torv.'  In  1730  Robert  Navarre,  in  whose  veins  ran  roval 
blood,  established  himself  as  roval  notary  and  sub-dele- 
gate  of  the  Intendant  of  Xew  France,  being  the  first 
civil  magistrate  to  exercise  his  office  within  the  present 
boundaries  of  the  Northwest.  Later,  in  1755,  the  banish- 
ed AcLdians,  with  Gabriel  seeking  the  Beautiful  River,' 
left  several  of  their  number  on  the  banks  of  a  river  not 
less  beautiful  than  the  Ohio. 

So  uneventful  for  Detroit  was  the  second  quarter  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  that  its  history  is  to  be  read 
only  in  the  account -books  of  Father  de  La  Richardie, 
Superior  of  the  Huron  mission  at  Detroit.  In  these 
voluminous  records  of  every -day  life  at  Detroit  it  is 
shown  that  Cadillac  was  clearly  right  in  sa\nng  that  the 
priests,  while  occupied  in  saving  souls,  were  most  thrifty 
withal.  Lender  the  good  father's  able  direction  the  gar- 
rison was  reduced  to  dependence  on  the  enterprising 
mission.  AVhen  a  cow  was  wanted  to  furnish  an  Indian 
barbecue,  it  was  supplied  by  the  mission  farmer  on  Bois 
Blanc  island,  who  held  his  well-stocked  acres  on  the  con- 
dition that  he  should  furnish  firewood,  chickens,  larti, 
and  suet  to  the  good  fathers,  and  also  give  to  the  mis- 
sion half  the  produce  of  the  farm.  The  blacksmith  also 
worked  on  shares  ;  the  mission  storekeeper  supplied  the 

'  French  proper  names  are  somewhat  of  a  puzzle  even  after  the  best 
of  explanations  available.  The  Casse  family  appeared  in  Detroit  in 
Cadillac's  time.  They  came  from  the  town  of  St.  Aiibin,  and  for  a 
time  were  called  Casse dz7  St.  Aubiu;  later,  "Casse "disappeared,  leav- 
ing the  still  persistent  family  of  St.  Aubin.  Nicknames  became  family 
names;  and  a  distinguished  female  ancestor  often  furnished  the  name 
by  which  her  descendants  were  known. 

'^  The  Ohio  was  called  b}'  the  French  La  Belle  Riviere. 

69 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THJiEE    FLAGS 

commandant  at  the  fort  with  botli  Lis  canoes  and  his 
wines;  and  tlie  small  traders  replenished  their  stocks  of 
wampum-  beads,  vermilion,  knives,  powder,  and  ball  at 
the  mission  store,  where  the  lay-brother.  La  Tour,  was 
in  charire.  Thus  Father  de  la  Eichardie  became  the 
first  wholesale  merchant  at  Detroit ;  and  the  exactness 
with  which  he  kept  the  accounts  is  evidence  that  tliere 
was  profit  on  other  wares  besides  the  masses,  which 
are  charged  along  with  the  vermilion,  the  chemises  de 
femme^  the  wheat,  and  the  wampum.'  Besides  his  traific 
in  merchandise,  the  Superior  of  the  Huron  mission  dealt 
in  real  estate,  both  within  and  outside  of  the  palisades ; 
and  it  was  due  to  him  that  the  Hurons  gave  up  their 
valuable  possessions  on  the  northern  borders  of  the 
growing  town,  and  removed  their  long  houses  to  the 
mission  domain  of  Father  de  la  Eichardie,  across  the 
river,  where  the  town  of  Sandwich  now  stands. 

In  order  to  thwart  the  movements  the  English  were 
makinfj  unceasino^lv  to  seduce  the  Indian  nations  of  the 
North,  Count  Eepentigny,  a  native  of  Canada  and  an  en- 
sign in  the  French  army,  was  sent  about  1751  to  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  to  make  there  a  palisade  fore  to  stop  the  Ind- 
ians on  their  way  to  the  English  posts  ;  and  to  seize  the 
presents  and  to  intercept  the  commerce  that  passed  be- 

'  After  the  departure  of  Cadillac,  opposition  being  withdrawn,  the 
Jesuits  had  established  themselves  at  Detroit  during  the  rule  of  Al- 
phonse  de  Tonty,  who  was  commandant  from  1717  till  his  death,  ten 
years  later.  Under  the  title  of  The  Jesuit  Manuscript,  Mr.  Richard  R. 
Elliott  published  in  the  Detroit  Sunday  Neics,  during  May,  1891,  full 
translations  of  these  account-books.  Files  are  in  the  Congressional 
Librar}'  and  in  the  Detroit  Public  Library.  From  the  entries  it  would 
appear  that  the  Cuilleriers,  husband  and  wife,  were  among  the  princi- 
pal traders:  Charles  St.  Aubin  dealt  in  furs;  Parent  was  the  carpen- 
ter ;  Derruisseau  sapped  the  maples  ;  Carrigan  de  Cealle  and  M. 
Goyon  were  the  millers. 

60 


INDIAN   HUNTER   OF   1750 


CADILLAC    FUl'XDS    DETROIT 

tween  the  Upper  Lake  savages  and  the  rivals  of  France. 
The  post  was  to  be  also  a  retreat  for  the  French  voya- 
geurs  trading  in  the  northwestern  country ;  and  to  that 
end  land  was  to  be  cleared,  Indian -corn  was  to  be 
planted,  and  stock  was  to  be  supplied,  all  at  the  expense 
of  Ilepentigny  and  his  partner,  Captain  Louis  De  Bonne. 
In  return  for  such  services  they  received,  on  October  18, 
1750,  a  grant  "  in  perpetuity  by  title  of  feof  and  seign- 
iory "  of  six  leagues  along  the  portage  with  a  depth  of 
six  leagues.  During  the  four  years  of  his  stay,  the 
young  count  reared  a  small  fort,  cleared  and  planted  a 
few  acres,  built  three  or  four  log-huts  for  his  men,  and 
for  stock  brought  thither  seven  head  of  cattle  and  two 
horses ;  but  the  victories  of  war  were  more  to  the  taste 
of  Chevalier  Repentigny  than  were  the  triumphs  of 
peace,  and  at  the  battlo  of  Sillery,  in  1760,  he  fought  by 
the  side  of  his  partner  Dl  Bonne  in  the  vain  attempt  to 
recapture  Quebec  from  the  English.  It  was  De  Bonne's 
last  fight ;  and  when  England  won  the  French  posses- 
sions in  the  new  world,  Repentigny,  refusing  the  most 
pressing  offers  from  the  British  governor  to  return  to  his 
northern  seigniory  and  cast  his  lot  with  the  conquerors, 
left  his  native  country  first  to  fight  the  Indians  in  New- 
foundland, and  finally  to  become  a  major-general  and 
the  governor  of  Senegal,  in  which  honorable  position 
death  overtook  him  in  1786.  Meantime  the  Indians,  in 
1762,  burned  his  fort,  and  the  lands  once  more  became 
the  hunting  and  fishing  grounds  of  the  red  men,  and  so 
continued  for  half  a  century.' 


•  In  1824-5  th^  original  brevet  of  ratitication  of  the  De  Bonne-Re- 
peutigny  graut,  signed  b}*"  the  King  of  France,  wus  presented  to  Mr. 
Graham,  the  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office.  During  all 
the  intervening  years  the  De  Bonne  rights  had  been  transferred  from 
person  to  person  ;  first  by  De  Bonne's  son,  who  sold  to  James  Cald- 

Gl 


THE    NOUTIIWEST    UNDER    TIIKE^:    FLAGS 

Throughout  the  Northwest,  at  the  numerous  portages 
between  the  headwaters  of  the  rivers,  French  traders 
and  woodrangers  established  theniselvos,  obtaining  sup- 
])lies  from  Quebec  and  ^Montreal,  or  fiom  the  nearer 
posts  of  Detroit  or  Michilimackinac.  Little  by  little  the 
power  of  the  government  relaxed,  and  the  individral 
trader  became  the  controlling  force.  At  Detroit  the 
F'rench  inhabitants  intermarried  scarcely  at  all  with 
the  Indians ;  and  generally  family  [)ride  held  back  the 
thrifty  Frenchman  frv)m  open  alliances  with  Indian 
maidens ;  but  in  the  remote  settlements  there  was  no 
such  hesitation.  There  I'rcnchman  and  Indian  slept  in 
the  same  hut  and  ate  out  of  the  same  dish.  It  will 
not  be  strange  if  they  shall  be  found  shooting  with  the 
same  gun. 

well,  of  Albanj',  New  York,  for  £1570-.  The  final  possessor  was 
John  Rolton,  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  English  arm}'.  Neither  Re- 
pentigny  uor  any  of  his  descendants  ever  transferred  their  interests  by 
will  or  deed ;  but  in  1800  and  again  in  1846  the  Repentigny  heirs 
formally  asserted  their  claims.  On  April  19, 1860,  Congress  authorized 
the  two  sets  of  claimants  to  proceed  in  the  courts  ;  and  accordingly 
the  cause  was  tried,  first,  in  the  United  States  District  Court  at  Detroit, 
where  the  claimants  were  successful  ;  and  finally  in  the  Supreme 
Court,  where  the  decree  of  the  coiirt  below  was  reversed.  The  case 
was  argued  by  Jacob  M.  Howard  for  the  claimants,  and  by  Attorney- 
General  Stanbery  and  United  States  District  Attorney  Alfred  Russell 
for  the  government.  The  title  of  the  case  is  the  United  States  va. 
Louise  Pauline  le  Gardiur  de  Repentigny  et  al.,  reported  in  8  Wall, 
As  to  the  Repentigny  claims,  the  court  held  that  the  count,  on  refus- 
ing to  become  a  British  subject  and  in  failing  lo  claim  his  possessions 
at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  within  the  time  specified  in  the  treaty  between 
France  and  England,  abandoned  his  rights  ;  the  De  Bonne  claims 
were  rejected  on  the  ground  that  failure  to  maintnin  the  fort  and 
settlement  caused  the  lands  to  revert  to  the  State,  and  that  the  United 
States,  by  surveying  and  selling  the  lands,  had  worked  such  reversion. 


CHAPTER  III 
TKE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  OHIO  COUNTRY 

The  daring  enterprise  of  the  French  trader  and  the 
devoted  heroism  of  the  French  missionary  in  their  dis- 
covery of  the  Northwest  have  been  related.  Up  the 
rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  through  the  chain  of  the  vast 
inland  seas,  and  down  the  rushing  waters  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi swept  the  tide  of  P'rench  discovery.  AVith  the 
exception  of  a  strip  of  land  lying  along  the  Atlantic  and 
extending  scarcely  a  hundred  miles  back  into  the  wilder- 
ness, the  continent  of  North  America  at  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  belonged  to  his  most  Christian 
majesty  by  the  w^ell-recognized  right  of  discov^ery  and 
occupation.  In  the  court  of  nations  it  mattered  nothing 
that  the  soil  was  in  the  actual  possession  not  of  French- 
men but  of  Indians,  and  that  the  foot  of  white  man 
had  never  trod  more  than  the  smallest  fraction  of  the 
country  over  which  France  claimed  dominion.  Whil*^ 
recognizing  the  policy  of  conciliating  the  Indians,  France, 
nevertheless,  claimed  the  exclusive  right  to  acquire 
from  them,  and  to  dispose  of,  the  land  which  they  oc- 
cupied, and  to  make  laws  for  the  government  of  the 
country. 

In  the  vear  1498,  more  than  a  third  of  a  centurv  be- 
fore  Jacques  Cartier's  little  vessel  ploughed  her  way  up 
the  broad  St.  Lawrence,  the  Cabots  discovered  the  conti- 
nent of  North  America,  and  sailed  south  as  far  as  Virginia. 

63 


fV 


VUK    NORTHWEST    UXDKK    TIIIiKK    FLAGS 

Acting  under  tlieir  charter'  to  discover  countries  then 
unknown  to  Christian  ])eople,  and  to  take  possession  of 
them  in  the  name  of  tlie  King  of  Enghmd,  tliese  hold 
adventurers  kiid  the  foundations  of  the  Enghsh  title  to 
the  Atkintic  coast."  It  was  not  until  the  beginning  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  however,  that  France  and 
England  followed  up  their  discoveries,  and  began  to  per- 
fect their  respective  titles  by  actual  occupation  of  the 
regions  discovered  by  their  venturesome  navigators. 

In  the  year  15cS4,  Sir  Walter  llaleigh,  "the  first  man 
in  England  w^ho  had  a  right  conception  of  the  advan- 
tages of  settlements  abroad,"  and  the  only  person  who 
at  that  time  had  a  thorough  insight  into  trade  and  the 
proper  methods  of  promoting  it,  "looked  through  the 
woi'k  of  an  age  at  one  glance"  and  saw  how  advan- 
tageous it  might  be  made  to  the  trade  of  England  to 
people  the  new  world."  Applying  to  that  most  enter- 
prising of  monarchs,  Queen  Elizabeth,  he  secured  from 
his  royal  patron  free  liberty  and  license  to  discover, 
search,  find  out  and  view  remote,  heathen,  and  barbar- 
ous lands  not  actually  possessed  of  any  Christian  prince, 
nor  inhabited  by  Christian  people.* 

'  T/te  Voyages  of  the  Cabots,  Old  South  Leaflets,  general  series,  No.  37. 

^  "  So  early  as  the  year  1496,  her  (Enghmd's)  monarch  granted  a 
commission  to  the  Cabots,  to  discover  countries  then  unknown  to 
Christian  people,  and  to  take  possession  of  them  in  the  name  of  the 
King  of  England.  Two  years  afterwards  Cabot  proceeded  on  this 
voj'^age,  and  discovered  the  continent  of  North  America,  along  which 
lie  sailed  as  far  south  as  Virginia.  To  this  discovery  the  English 
trace  their  title." — Opinion  by  Mr.  Chief- justice  Marshall,  Johnson 
vs.  Mcintosh,  8  Wheaton,  p.  571. 

^  An  Account  of  the  European  Settlements  in  America,  vol.  ii. ,  p.  218. 
This  work,  published  anonymously,  was  written  by  Edmund  Burke. 

•*  Historical  Collections,  consisting  of  State  Papers,  by  Ebenezer 
Hazard,  contrJns  Raleigh's  patent,  the  assignment  of  it,  the  first  and 
second  charters  of  Virginia,  and  other  like  important  documents. 

64 


V.  mM, 


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1 

SEBASTIAN    CAliOT 


TllK    i:\(iLlSll     IN    THE    OlllU    COUNTi:V 

Uiilt'igh  liinist'lf  was  too  much  (»ngrossetl  with  alFairs 
of  state  to  UmuI  colonists  in  America;  but  in  1585  his 
captain,  Sir  Ricliard  (ironvillc,  founded  upon  Koanoko 
Ishmd,  in  the  present  State  of  North  Carohna,  the  iirst 
English  settlement  established  on  the  continent  of  North 
America.  The  times,  however,  f(>rl)a(le  the  success  of 
the  undertaking;  for  the  invincible  Spanish  Armada 
must  be  destroyed  before  colonization  could  flow  un- 
vexed  acros?  the  seas.  Thus  it  happened  that  it  was  not 
until  1607  that  Raleigh'  successors  planted  at  James- 
town the  first  permanent  English  settlement  in  America. 
In  1609,  under  a  new  and  enlarged  charter,  the  "  Treas- 
urer and  Company  of  Merchant  Adventurers  of  the  City 
of  London  for  the  First  Colony  in  Virginia"  became 
possessed  in  absolute  property  of  the  lands  extending 
along  the  sea-coas*^  two  hundred  miles  north  and  the 
same  distance  sou.  u  from  Old  Point  Comfort,  and  into 
the  land  throno-hout  from  sea  to  sea.' 

Again,  in  1620,  a  charter  was  granted  to  ^he  Duke  of 
Lenox  and  others,  organized  under  the  name  of  the  Tiym- 
outh  Company,  conveying  to  them  all  the  lands  be- 
tween the  fortieth  and  the  forty-eighth  degrees  of  north 
latitude.  In  the  course  of  time  these  special  charters 
were  either  annulled  or  surrendered,  and  the  title  to  the 
lands  revested  in  the  crown,  to  be  disposed  of  from  time 
to  time  as  his  majesty  might  see  fit,  in  creating  colonies 
along  the  Atlantic. 

These  early  grants  of  lands,  stretching  from  the  known 

*  It  was  then  believed  that  the  parallel  40°  was  two  hundred  miles 
north  of  Cape  Comfort.  The  instruments  of  measurement,  however, 
were  clumsy,  and  the  computed  length  of  a  degree  was  not  accurate, 
as  Sir  Isaac  Newton  found,  nearly  a  century  later.  See  "  The  Limits 
of  Virginia,"  by  Hon.  Littleton  W.  Tazewell,  in  the  Virginia  Ilistari- 
cal  Register,  1848,  p.  17. 

E  65 


THE    NOKTIIWEST    UNDKK    TIIRKE    FLAGS 

Athmtic  back  throuMi  unknown  regions  to  tbo  illusive 
South  Sea  dreamed  of  by  adventurers  tiirougb  tlie  ages, 
comprised  within  their  infinite  parallels  all  the  North- 
west save  only  tlie  upper  two-thirds  of  the  present  States 
of  Miclii^an  and  Wisconsin.  The  lines  of  Vir<nnia  in- 
eluded  the  lower  half  of  Ohio,  Indiana, and  Illinois;  Con- 
necticut, bv  virtue  of  her  charter,  claimed  the  upper  half 
of  that  territory  ;  and  Massachusetts  likewise  obtained 
the  shadow  of  a  title  to  the  southern  half  of  Wisconsin 
and  of  the  lower  peninsula  of  ^lichigan.  However,  it 
was  not  until  the  Treatv  of  1763  broufi:ht  these  refjions 
within  the  actual  possession  of  the  British  crown  that 
the  claims  of  Connecticut  and  ^lassachusetts  could  be 
made  even  upon  paper.  New  York,  too,  had  unsub- 
stantial claims  to  the  Ohio  country,  based  on  the  con- 
quests of  its  allies  the  Iroquois. 

In  1G24,  the  Virginia  corporation  having  been  dis- 
solved by  due  process  of  law,  both  the  powers  of  gov- 
ernment and  the  title  to  the  lands  revested  in  the  crown 
of  Englp,nd.'  Thus  the  colony  was  changed  from  a  pro- 
prietary to  a  royal  government,  and  the  lands  within  its 

'  By  the  judgment  of  the  ^"'oiirt  of  King's  Bench  on  a  writ  of  quo 
warranto,  8  Wheaton,  pp.  545,  578. 

The  phrase  "due  process  or  law  "  must  be  regarded  as  a  legal  fiction. 
The  facts  are  that  King  James,  acting  under  Spanish  influences,  be- 
came jealous  of  the  growth  and  power  of  the  London  Company,  and 
determined  to  put  an  end  to  it.  When  Parliament  would  have  re- 
sented such  action  against  the  interests  of  many  of  its  members  who 
were  also  members  of  the  company,  the  Speaker  read  a  message  from 
the  king,  forbidding  that  body  to  meddle  with  the  matter  ;  and  later, 
when  the  case  on  the  quo  warranto  came  up  before  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench,  the  Attorney-general  gravely  argued  that  the  company,  under 
its  charter,  might  depopulate  England  to  people  Virginia.  Such  a 
catastrophe  being  too  dreadful  to  contemplate,  the  Chief -justice  de- 
clared the  charter  thenceforth  to  be  null  and  void.  See  Fiske's  Old 
Virginia  and  Iler  Neighbors,  vol.  i.,  p.  219. 

66 


TIIK    KNGLISll     IN    T II  K    Oillu    CurXTUV 

l)(>r(ItM*s  were  Jit  tlio  disposal  of  tlio  king,  ami  so  con- 
tinued until  Virginia  became  a  free  and  independent 
State.  For  a  century  from  the  dissolution  of  the  \^ir- 
ginia  corporation  and  tiie  estahlislinient  of  the  royal 
;j:overnment,  the  colonists  f(nnid  the  lands  east  of  tlui 
Allegiianies  sulKciently  extensive  for  their  uses.  They 
had  come  to  the  New  World  to  establish  homes  for 
tiiemselves  and  their  ])osterity ;  and  whih'  an  occasion- 
al trader  penetrated  the  wilderness  of  the  interior  to 
barter  with  the  Indians,  vet  there  was  in  Virj'inia  no 
organized  traffic  with  the  savages,  such  as  liourished 
in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York.' 

The  early  colonists  of  Virginia  had  spread  themselves 
over  the  country.  Towns  were  few  and  there  was  no 
general  trade.  Selecting  a  commanding  site  on  the 
banks  of  one  of  the  numerous  tidewater  streams,  the 
Virginia  planter  reared  his  stately  mansion  of  wood, 
fashioned  on  the  lines  of  a  Gi*eek  temple.  There,  sur- 
rounded by  his  black  slaves  and  white  dependents,  he 
lived  his  solitary  life  in  true  patriarchal  style.  Negroes 
imported  from  Africa  tilled  his  broad  acres  planted  with 
tobacco,  a  product  that,  like  the  flocks  of  early  times, 
played  the  double  part  of  the  medium  and  the  material 
of  exchange,  liis  one  vital  connection  with  the  great 
world  was  the  annual  ship  that  came  from  England, 
L  ino'ino:  both  the  necessities  and  the  luxuries  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  and  returned  laden  with  tobacco  consigned  to  the 

'  In  a  letter  to  the  Council  of  Trade,  dated  December  15,  1710, 
Governor  Spotswood  proposed  a  plan  for  carrying  the  Virginia  seiile- 
nients  to  the  source  of  the  James  Kiver,  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge,  with 
a  view  of  interposing  between  the  French  on  the  St.  Lawrerjce  and 
those  on  the  Mississippi,  and  also  to  estalilishing  trade  vvith  the  Ind- 
ians. From  this  letter  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  there  were  already  a 
few  Virginia  traders.  Spotswood's  Ojjicial  Letters,  Richmond,  1882, 
p.  40. 

G7 


THE    NOIlTinVEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

planter's  London  agent,  wlio  not  only  sold  the  product, 
but  also  made  purchases  of  ciothing,  furniture,  books, 
and  wines  for  the  planter's  use.  Royalists,  aristocrats, 
firm  believers  in  Church  and  State,  these  Virginians  kept 
up  all  the  traditions  of  England.  Often  they  sent  their 
sons  to  the  mother-country  to  be  educated ;  the  young 
men  served  in  the  British  armv  or  navy  durino^  the  fre- 
quent  wars  waged  between  England  and  France;  and 
members  of  the  British  nobility,  together  with  nav:  i 
officers  of  rank  and  reputation,  were  welcome  sharers  of 
the  abundant  hospitality  proverbial  among  the  planters. 
The  Washington  family  may  be  takt.  is  a  ty])e  of 
tidewater  Virginians.  Belonging  to  the  party  of  the 
king,  the  brothers  John  and  Andrew  Washington  had 
come  to  America  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  so  many  of  the  cavaliers  found  it  con- 
venient to  escape  from  the  rule  of  Cromwell.  They 
purchased  land  between  the  Potomac  and  Rappahan- 
nock ;  John  married,  became  a  considerable  planter,  a 
fighter  against  the  Indians,  and  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Burgesses.  As  the  family  persisted  from  generation 
to  generation,  the  estate  increased ;  and  three-quarters 
of  a  century  after  the  coming  of  the  brothers  to  Amer- 
ica, the  great-grandson  of  John  had  become  the  head  of 
an  established  and  influential  colonial  family.  In  the 
war  that  broke  out  between  Spain  and  France  and 
England  in  1740,  this  Lawrence  Washington  went  to 
the  West  Indies  as  a  captain  in  the  colonial  regiment 
raised  to  aid  th^  king  ;  and  during  his  military  service 
he  formed  the  acquaintance  of  men  of  the  great  world. 
As  his  father  and  grandfathers  before  him  had  set  them- 
selves to  add  to  their  domains,  so  Lawrence  Washino-ton 
was  anxious  to   increase  his  holdings  of  land  ;  and  to 

this  end  he  and  his  brother  Augustine  joined  others  of 

68 


LAWHENCK    \V  ASHINGTON 

(From  a  portrait  l.y  an  ,n.k...nv..  artist,  in  ,msses8ion  of  Lawrence  Washington  Alexandria 

\  irginia. )  ' 


THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  OHIO  COUNTRY 

like  wealth  and  influence  with  themselves  lo  organize  a 
company  for  the  i)urpose  of  settling  the  western  country 
and  trading  with  the  Indians. 

Lawrence  Washington  had  married  a  daughter  of 
the  Hon.  William  Fairfax,  whose  cousin,  Lord  Fairfax, 
inherited  the  rich  lands  of  the  Culpeper  grant  made  by 
Charles  IL,  and  comprising,  in  part,  the  greater  portion 
of  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Lord  Fairfax  was  a  grad- 
uate of  (Jxford  :  in  early  life  he  had  been  a  man  of 
fashion  in  London  ;  and  he  had  actually  contributed  one 
or  two  papers  to  the  Spectator.  A  disappointment  in 
love  had  driven  him  into  the  wilderness  of  the  New 
World  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  the  beautiful  Shenandoah 
Valley  he  had  built  for  himself  a  home  that  served  as 
a  resting-place  between  fox-hunts,  and  a  place  of  busi- 
ness in  his  dealings  with  his  tenants  and  the  settlers  to 
whom  he  sold  his  broad  acres.  The  favorite  compan- 
ion of  his  lordship  was  George  Washington,  a  younger 
brother  of  Lawrence.  Young  Washington,  then  a  strap- 
ping youth  of  sixteen,  enjoyed  to  the  utmost  the  sport 
of  riding  to  hounds ;  but  his  occupation  was  to  make 
the  surveys  necessary  for  the  sale  of  the  lands  to  the 
thousands  of  immigrants  then  flocking  into  the  fertile 
valley.* 

Durii.g  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  there 

*  In  August,  1716,  Governor  Spotswood,  leading  a  party  of  fifteen 
gentlemen,  rar  rers,  pioneers,  Indians,  and  servants  into  tlie  Shenan- 
doah Valley,  hud  reached  the  watershed  between  the  rivers  flowing 
into  the  Atlantic  and  those  emptying  into  the  Ohio.  That  the  party 
was  a  merry  one  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  they  drank  the 
health  of  King  George  the  First  in  Virginia  wine  both  red  and  white, 
Irish  usquebaugh,  brandy,  shrub,  two  kinds  of  rum,  champagne, 
canary,  cherry-punch,  and  cider.  The  distance  traversed  was  219 
miles  from  Williamsburg.  Campbell's  Virginia  (Philadelphia,  1860), 
p.  387. 

69 


TIIK    NOUTUWKST    UNDER   THREE    FLAGS 

ciimc  into  Virginia  a  numerous  immigration,  chiefly  fi'oni 
Germany  and  the  north  of  Ireland.  Edmund  Burke, 
writing-in  IT^U,  places  the  number  of  white  people  in 
Virginia  at  between  sixty  and  seventy  thousand  ;'  and, 
he  says,  "  they  are  growing  every  day  more  numerous 
by  the  migration  of  the  Irish,  who,  not  succeeding  so 
well  in  Pennsvlvania  as  the  more  frun^al  and  industrious 
Germans,  sell  their  lands  in  that  province  to  the  latter, 
and  take  up  new  ground  in  the  more  remote  counties 
in  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  North  Carolina.  These  are 
chielly  Presbyterians  from  the  northern  part  of  Ireland, 
who  in  America  are  generally  called  Scotch-Irish."  So 
early  this  new  force  in  American  affairs  found  recoijni- 
tion  in  England." 

It  is  well  worth  while  here  to  trace  the  causes  that 
led  to  results  so  overmastering  in  the  making  of  the 
Xorthwest.  About  the  time  when  the  English  colonists 
were  planting  themselves  at  Jamestown,  anotiier  immi- 
gration, also  under  the  auspices  of  James  I.,  was  going 
into  Ireland,  where  the  Earls  of  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnel, 
leaders  in  the  great  Catholic  rebellions,  were  driven 
from  the  country  and  their  confiscated  estates  parcelled 
among  a  body  of  Scotch  and  English  sent  across  the 

'  European  Settlements  in  America,  ii.,  p.  210.  (Fifth  edition,  1770.) 
'^  The  popuhitiou  of  Pennsylvania  increased  from  20.000  in  1701  to 
250,000  in  1749,  largely  through  the  immigration  of  Scotch  Irish,  and 
Germans  from  the  Palatinate.  James  Logan,  the  Scotch-Irish  gov- 
ernor of  Pennsylvania  during  this  period,  was  a  Quaker,  and  had  small 
love  for  Presbyterians.  Through  his  efforts  they  were  forced  to  the 
frontiers,  where  they  formed  an  etlicient  harrier  against  the  Indians. 
See  The  Puritan  in  Holla  ml,  England,  and  America,  by  Douglass  Camp- 
bell, ii.,  p.  484. 

Burke's  estimate  of  the  population  is  much  too  low.  In  1715  there 
were  in  Virginia  72,500  whites  and  28,000  negroes.  Only  IMassa- 
chusetts  could  show  a  larger  population.  See  Official  Letters  of 
Alexander  Spotswood,  p.  xi. 

70 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    TilE    OHIO    COUNTRY 

border  to  occupy  them.  The  new-comers  made  those 
once  barren  lands  to  blossom  like  the  rose ;  and  by  the 
famous  defence  of  Londonderrv  thev  saved  the  throne 
to  AVilliam  of  Orange  and  the  realm  to  Protestantism. 
At  the  beffinninn:  of  the  ei<2:hteenth  centurv  these  stanch 
Presbyterians  fell  a  victim  to  test -oaths  designed  to 
suppress  popery,  but  used  as  effectually  to  checfc  Pres- 
byterianism.  Added  to  the  religious  persecution  were 
the  burdensome  restraints  on  commerce  that  in  Ireland 
were  but  the  prelude  to  those  later  commercial  restric- 
tions which  were  to  alienate  ^he  American  colonies  from 
the  mother-country.  Then,  too,  came  the  extortionate 
rents  and  the  resulting  eviction^  that  in  two  years  drove 
thirty  thousand  Scotch -Irish  to  seek  a  more  abiding 
home  bevond  the  seas,  where,  on  the  frontiers  of  Marv- 
land  and  Virginia,  Kev.  Francis  Makemie,  in  10S3,  had 
founded  the  first  Presbvterian  churches  in  America.* 

Toleration  Acts  for  a  time  put  a  check  to  this  whole- 
sale depopulation  of  the  north  of  Ireland,  but  when 
in  1728  persecution  again  commenced,  Ulster  began  to 
send  annually  twelve  thousand  persons  to  "  a  land  where 
there  was  no  legal  robbery,  and  where  those  who  sowed 
the  seed  could  reap  the  harvest.''  This  human  stream 
struck  eastern  Pennsylvania,  then  turned  southward 
through  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas.  In 
1738,  the  Scotch-Irish  in  large  numbers  entered  the  val- 
ley beyond  the  Blue  Ridge,  and,  with  the  exception  of 


*  In  Virginia  the  Presbyterians  were  the  fi*"  'f  to  make  headway 
against  the  prevailing  intolerance.  The  c^  .  "^i;:;  carried  on  by 
Makemie,  for  whose  followers  the  ToleiL'on  Ac  -^f  William  and 
Mary  brought  small  share  of  indulgence.  In  1699  there  were  but 
three  or  four  Presbyterian  meeting-houses  in  the  colony.  Three- 
quarters  of  a  century  later  two-thirds  of  the  population  were  dissent- 
ers.    Lodge's  English  Colonies  in  America,  p.  56. 

71 


tjip:  northwkst  unj)EU  tiikke  fla(;s 

some  German  settlements  near  the  lower  end,  com- 
})lete]y  possessed  it.  So  strong-  in  numbers  were  they 
that  in  this  year  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia,  at  the  in- 
stance of  John  Caldwell,  the  grandfather  of  John  Cald- 
well Calhoun,  sent  a  commissioner  to  propose  to  the 
governor  of  Virginia  that  the  Scotch-Irish  would  pro- 
tect the  colony  against  the  Indians  provided  only  ''  that 
they  be  allowed  the  liberty  of  their  consciences  and  of 
worshipping  God  in  a  way  agreeable  to  the  princi])les  of 
their  education."  To  this  proposition  Govei-nor  Gooch 
made  gracious  answer;  and  thus  it  happened  that  for  a 
time  the  free  Bible  secured  the  services  of  the  trustv  rifle.* 
During  the  spring  of  1748,  George  Washington,  while 
raakincr  survevs  in  the  Shenandoah  Yallev,  obtained  his 
first  experience  of  border  life  and  border  people.  Tramp- 
ing amid  beautiful  groves  of  sugar-trees,  paddling  past 
lands  yielding  an  abundance  of  grain,  hemp,  and  tobacco, 
he  ran  the  lines  of  Lord  Fairfax's  possessions  with  an 
accuracy  that  has  since  become  proverbial.  At  night 
he  rolled  himself  in  a  blanket  and  lav  down  on  a  little 
hay  or  a  bearskin,  with  man,  wife,  and  children,  like 
dogs  and  cats ;  and  happy  was  he  who  got  the  berth 
nearest  the  fire.  At  Colonel  Cresap's  he  shared  the  lim- 
ited accommodations  of  the  place  with  a  band  of  thirty 
Indians  coming  from  war  with  a  single  scalp;  and  for 
amusement  he  supplied  the  liquors  necessary  to  induce  a 
war-dance,  which  struck  the  hard-headed  young  surveyor 
as  hi(]jhlv  comical." 

'  The  Scotch-Irish  of  the  South.  An  address  at  the  Scotch-Irish 
Congress,  1889.  hy  lion.  William  Wirt  Henry.     Proceedings,  p.  117. 

Gooch  resigned  in  1749.  The  latter  years  of  his  term  were  emhit- 
tered  by  his  attempts  to  suppress  Iieterodox  opinions,  which  attempts 
had  the  usual  results.    See  Lodge's  Etigllsh  Colonies  in  America,  p.  29. 

'  Sparks's  Washington,  vol.  ii.,  contains  Washington's  letters  and 
journals  covering  this  period  of  his  career. 

72 


\v\smN(;T«>N   AS  A  sri;vKY<»ii 


Tin:    ENGLISH    IN    TIIK    OlIlU    COUNTRY 

In  this  year  1748,  while  the  rich  hinds  of  the  garden 
of  Virginia  were  being  laid  off  and  populated,  the  enter- 
prising men  of  the  colony  put  their  heads  together  to 
secure  the  territory  beyond  the  Alleghanies,  but  still 
within  the  chartered  limits  of  the  province.  The  prime 
mover  in  the  stiiiemc  was  Thomas  Lee,  the  president  of 
his  majesty's  Virginia  council,  and  with  him  were  asso- 
ciated, among  others,  Lawrence  and  Augustine  Wash- 
ington, half-brothers  of  George.  The  London  partner 
was  Thomas  Hanbury,  a  merchant  of  wealth  and  influ- 
ence. Taking  the  name  of  the  Oliio  Com])any,  the  as- 
sociates presented  to  the  king  a  petition  for  half  a  mill- 
ion acres  of  land  on  the  south  side  of  the  Ohio  River, 
between  the  Monongahela  and  the  Kanawha  rivers,  with 
the  privilege  of  selecting  a  portion  of  the  lands  on  the 
north  side.  Two  hundred  thousand  acres  were  to  be 
taken  up  at  once  ;  one  hundred  families  were  to  be  seated 
within  seven  years,  and  a  fort  was  to  be  built  as  a  pro- 
tection against  hostile  Indians.  The  king  readily  as- 
sented to  a  proposition  which  promised  an  effective  and 
inexpensive  means  of  occupying  the  Ohio  valley,  which 
was  claimed  by  the  French  by  right  of  discovery  and 
occupation.  These  claims  France  was  just  then  in  a 
mood  to  make  good. 

Orders  having  been  sent  to  the  Virginia  government 

to  make  the  grant  to  the  Ohio  Company,  the  projectors 

of  the  scheme  ordered  two  cargoes  of  goods  suitable  for 

the  Indian  trade ;  thev  besfan  to  construct  roads  across 

the  mountains,  and  prepared  to  send   out  an  explorer 

both  to  look  over  the  lands,  and  also  to  arrange  for  an 

Indian  council  at  which  the  Virginia  authorities  should 

treat  with  the  savages  for  the  Indian  title  to  the  lands 

within  the  grant. 

Before  the  company's  agent   could  take  the  field, 

73 


TIIK    NOUTllWEST    I'NDEIl    T 11  U  E  E    FLA(;S 

France  had  decided  upon  her  course  of  action.  While 
the  French  government,  either  at  liome  or  in  Canada, 
could  do  little  to  prevent  indiviihial  English  traders 
from  wandering  at  will  through  the  forest  towns,  the 
formation  of  the  Ohio  Company  under  royal  sanction, 
proposing  as  it  did  to  carve  a  half-million  acres  out  of 
what  the  F'rench  regarded  as  their  domain,  was  not  a 
matter  to  he  tossed  to  and  fro  like  a  shuttlecock  between 
the  Cabinet  at  Versailles  and  the  Cabinet  at  St.  James. 
The  ministers  of  his  most  Christian  ^Majesty  now  dropped 
idle  discussions  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  "  ancient  boun- 
daries ''  mentioned  in  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  put 
aside  their  vain  attempts  to  convince  the  London  court 
that  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  was  intended  to  de- 
fine and  not  to  confuse  the  limits  of  empire.  The  F>ench 
proceeded  to  take  the  only  course  left  open  to  them. 
They  occu])ied  the  Ohio  Valley  in  force. 

Preliminary  to  more  active  military  operations,  the 
Chevalier  Celoron  de  Bienville,  with  a  band  of  more  than 
two  hundred  French  officers  and  Canadian  soldiers  and 
boatmen,  was  sent  to  take  formal  possession  of  the  Ohio. 
Up  the  turbulent  St.  Lawrence,  across  placid  Lake  On- 
tario, around  the  far-sounding  falls  of  Niagara,  along  the 
shores  of  fitful  Lake  Erie  the  flotilla  of  twenty-three 
birch-bark  canoes  skimmed  its  rapid  way  during  the  ver- 
dant June  and  the  hot  July  of  1749.  Striking  across 
country  to  Lake  Chautauqua,  the  frail  barks  were  again 
launched  on  that  beautiful  sheet  of  water,  and  thence  a 
path  was  found  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Alleghany. 
Floating  down  this  river  and  the  Ohio,  the  fleet  stopped 
now  to  treat  with  the  Indians  at  one  of  their  numerous 
villages,  and  again  to  bury  at  the  mouth  of  some  tribu- 
tary a  lead  plate  inscribed  with  the  flower-de-luce  and 
bearing  a  legend  to  the  effect  that  thus  the  FVench  re- 


THE    ENGLISH    l\    THE    OHIO    COL  \  TRY 

newed  their  possession  of  the  river  Ohio,  iind  (jf  all  those 
rivers  that  flow  into  it,  as  far  as  their  sources,  ''  the  same 
as  was  enjoyed,  or  on^ht  to  have  been  enjoyed  by  the 
preceding  kin<^s  of  France,  and  tiiat  they  have  main- 
tained by  their  arms  and  treaties,  especially  by  those  of 
Ryswick,  LTtrecht,  and  Aix-la-Cliapelle/' ' 

From  the  Ohio  the  party  of  occupation  made  its  way 
up  the  Miami  to  Lake  Erie,  and  thence  to  (Juebec.  In 
several  of  the  Indian  villa<'es,  Celeron  had  found  En^:- 
lish  traders.  These  ho  sent  back  to  tiie  colonies  with 
warnin<^s  not  to  trespass  upon  French  territory;  while 
the  Indians  who  harbored  them  were  warned  of  the 
wrath  of  their  father,  the  French  king,  in  case  they  con- 
tinued to  receive  the  English  traders — warnings  which 
the  savages  were  not  inclined  to  heed.  The  fact  was 
that  the  English  traders  offered  better  bargains  than  did 
the  French  ,  and  the  Indians  were  quick  to  perceive 
that  their  interest  lay  in  competition  between  the  white 
races. 

Nothing  daunted  by  the  theatrical  expedition  of  Cele- 
ron, the  Ohio  Company,  in  September,  1750,  called  from 
his  home  on  the  Yadkin  that  shrewd  and  hardy  pioneer, 
Christopher  Gist.  No  better  selection  could  have  been 
made.  Gist's  father  had  surveyed  the  western  shore  of 
Maryland,  and  had  aided  in  laying  out  the  town  of  Bal- 
timore ,  and  the  son  had  inherited  the  father's  liking  for 
out-door  life.  The  quality  of  the  English  blood  in  his 
veins  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  one  son,  Richard,  was 
killed  in  the  battle  of  King's  Mountain  ;  another  son, 
Nathaniel,  was  a  colonel  in  the  Virginia  line  during  the 
Revolution,  and   was  the  progenitor  of   Montgomery 


•  See  De  Hass's  Western  Virginia  for  a  drawing  of  the  plate  fouud  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Kauavvha. 

75 


TiiK  no;:tii\\kst  rNDKU  tiiukk  flags 

IJliiir,  Francis  I*  Hlair,  iind  J5.  (irutz  Brown.'  Gist's  in- 
structions directed  him  **  to  go  out  as  soon  as  possible  to 
tlio  westward  of  tlu^  <^reat  inninitains  in  order  to  search 
out  and  discover  tlio  lands  upon  the  river  Ohio  (and 
other  adjoining  branches  of  the;  Mississippi)  down  as  low 
as  the  <!:reat  falls  thereof."  lie  was  to  observe  the  wavs 
and  passes  through  the  mountains  ;  the  width  and  depth 
of  the  rivers;  what  nations  of  Indians  inhabit  the  lands, 
whom  they  trade  with,  and  in  what  they  derl.  In  par- 
ticular ho  was  to  nuirk  all  the  good  level  lands,  so  that 
they  might  easily  be  found  ;  for  it  was  the  ])ur[)ose  of 
the  company  to  go  all  the  way  down  to  the  Mississippi 
if  need  were,  in  order  not  to  take  mean,  broken  land.' 

On  the  last  day  of  October,  (tist  set  out  from  Colonel 
Cresap's,  on  the  Potomac,  in  Maryland,  and  follo\ved  an 
old  Indian  path  up  the  Juniata.  Sleeping  in  Indian 
cabins,  living  on  bear  and  wild  turkey,  braving  rain  and 
snow,  throwing  oif  fever  by  a  resort  to  the  Indian  cus- 
tom of  going  into  a  sweat-house,  Gist  was  twenty-five 
days  in  reaching  the  Seneca  village  of  Logstown,  eigh- 
teen miles  down  the  Ohio  from  the  present  site  of  Pitts- 
burg. There  he  found  a  parcel  of  reprobate  Indian 
traders  from  Pennsylvania,  at  whose  hands  he  would 
have  fared  badly  indeed,  had  he  not  represented  him- 
self as  the  king's  messenger.  lie  inquired  for  George 
Croghan,  the  idol  of  the  Pennsylvania  Scotch-Irish ;  and 
found  that  the  veteran  trader,  with  xVndrew  Montour,  the 
interpreter,  was  a  week's  journey  in  advance.  At  Beaver 
Creek,  (iist  fell  in  with  Barney  Curran,  an  Ohio  Com- 
pany's trader,  and  together  they  struck  across  country 
to  the  Muskingum,  where  was  an  Indian  town  of  a  hun- 

'  Lowderniilk's  Cumbeiidnd  (WnshiugUm,  1878),  p.  28. 
^"Jouinnl  of  Christopher  Gist's  .Tourney,"  printed   in  Pownall's 
Topographical  Description  of  North  America  (LondoD,  1776). 

76 


TIIK    EXOLTSII    IX    TIIK    Olffo    rorXTUV 

iIinmI  f:nnilii?s.  As  Ctlst's  party  caiiu;  in  si<;lit  of  tin? 
place,  tliciveves  were  rejoiced  by  the  si<^ht  oT  two  Kn<^- 
lisli  tla^s  snapping  in  the  bi'isk  December  wind  ;  and 
on  inquiring  the  cause,  he  found  that  (ieorge  Croglian 
had  raised  one  fla<j:  over  the  chiefs  lodf^^o  and  another 
over  his  own,  and  liad  sent  out  runners  to  call  the  Ind- 
ians to  council  over  the  capture  of  some  English  traders 
by  the  French.  It  transpired  that  two  of  Croghan's 
men  had  been  taken  by  a  band  of  forty  Frenchmen  and 
twenty  Indians,  and  had  been  hurried  to  the  French  |)ost 
at  Presqu'  Isle,  on  Lake  Erie.  Croghan  received  Gist 
with  satisfaction. 

On  Christmas  day,  Gist  proposed  to  read  the  prayers 
appointed  by  the  Church  of  England.  Croghan's  follow- 
ers, however,  had  no  desire  to  worship  after  the  manner 
of  the  king's  religion,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  good 
offices  of  the  local  blacksmith,  Thomas  Hurney,  and  the 
interj)reter,  Andrew  Montour,  this  pious  purpose  must 
have  failed.  These  two  white  men  collected  a  congre- 
gation of  Indians;  and  probably  that  Christmas  of  1750 
was  the  occasion  when  first  the  doctrines  of  salvation, 
faith,  and  good  works  were  expounded  by  a  Protestant 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  Northwest.  The  result  was 
embarrassing.  The  Indians  immediately  implored  Gist 
to  settle  among  them,  baptize  their  children,  and  per- 
form their  marriage  ceremonies.  They  loved  the  English, 
they  said,  but  heretofore  had  seen  little  religion  among 
them ! 

It  was  not  until  the  middle  of  January  that  the  Ind- 
ians assembled  in  council.  Then  Croghan  acquainted 
the  savages  that  the  great  king  over  the  water  had  sent 
them  a  large  present  of  goods  in  care  of  the  Governor  of 
Virginia,  and  had  invited  them  to  partake  of  his  charity. 
The  Indians  replied  that  they  would  consider  the  matter 

77 


THE  NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

in  the  groat  council  wlien  spring  was  come ;  and  with 
that  the  envoys,  being  Gatistied,  departed.  Coming  to 
White  Woman's  Creek,  thev  found  dwor.inof  there  with 
her  Indian  husband  and  her  half-breed  cliildren,  Mary 
Harris,  then  fifty  v^ars  old.  AVhen  but  ten  vears  of 
age  she  Iiad  been  captured  in  New  England  by  allies  of 
the  French  ;  and  she  still  remembered  that  the  people 
used  to  be  very  religious  in  her  native  country,  ana  won- 
dered that  white  men  could  be  so  wicked  as  she  had 
found  them  in  the  Ohio  woods. 

On  the  Scioto  Creek  they  came  to  a  Delawi^re  vil- 
lage, where  they  were  well  received ;  and  at  the  mouth  of 
that  stream  thev  found  the  Shawanese,  who  also  were 
friendly,  for  in  times  gone  by  the  English  had  saved  the 
Shawanese  when  attacked  by  the  Six  Nations.  Both  of 
these  tribes  promised  that  they  would  meet  the  Virgin- 
ians at  Logstown  in  the  spring.  Then  Gist,  with  Cro- 
ghan,  Montour,  and  Robert  Kalltndar,  turned  his  face 
northward,  and  after  a  journey  of  150  miles  came  to  the 
Tawightwi  town  (Piqua),  on  the  Miami,  in  the  present 
Ohio  countv  of  that  name.  AVith  the  En^iflish  colors  at 
their  head,  the  little  band  marched  into  the  capital  of  the 
pow^erful  western  confederacy  ,  the  strongest  Indian  town 
in  that  part  of  the  continent.  Amid  the  firing  of  guns 
the  ambassadors  of  the  colonies  were  received  bv  the 
English  traders,  and  by  the  chief,  who  raised  the  Eng- 
lish flao^  above  his  own  lodo:e.  The  Tawio:htwis,  or 
Miamis,  were  a  numerous  people,  made  up  of  many 
tribes,  each  tribe  having  a  chief  ;  and  one  of  these  chiefs 
was  selected  to  rule  the  entire  nation.  Formerly  they 
lived  on  the  Wabash,  but  latterly  t'  oy  bad  removed  to 
the  Miami,  in  order  to  deal  with  the  English  traders, 
who  offered  them  much  better  bargains  than  did  the 

French.    At  this  time  they  were  on  friendly  terms  with 

*  78 


THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  OHIO  COUXTKV 

the  Six  Nations,  who  vcre  their  natural  rivals ;  for  the 
Miamis  in  the  west  were  quite  as  powerful  a  confederacy 
as  were  the  Six  Xations  in  the  east. 

Assembled  in  the  lon(> -h  juse  of  tiie  nation,  en  Sunday, 
the  17th  of  P^ebruary,  1751,  the  council  was  opened  by 
the  interpreter  Montour,  with  the  usual  formalities  of 
presenting  wampum  belts.  Then  he  gave  greeting  to 
the  chiefs  •  ''  You  have  made  a  road  for  our  brothers  the 
English  to  come  and  trade  among  you ;  but  it  is  now 
very  foul,  great  logs  are  fallen  across  it,  and  we  would 
have  you  be  strong  like  men,  and  have  one  heart  with 
us  to  make  the  road  clear,  that  our  brothers,  the  Eng- 
lish, may  have  free  course  and  recourse  between  you  and 
us.  In  the  sincerity  of  our  hearts  we  send  you  these 
four  strings  of  wampum."  To  this  the  Indians  gave 
their  usual  grunt  of  yo-ho,  meaning,  ''  We  will  see."  At 
noon  on  Wednesday,  the  chiefs,  arrayed  in  the  shirts, 
blankets,  and  paint  that  the  Ohio  CompaT;y's  agent  had 
provided,  entered  the  long-house,  to  smoke  the  calumet 
with  their  visitors  ;  and  the  next  day  Croghan  on  behalf 
of  the  Pennsylvania  authorities  gave  presents  to  the 
1  alue  of  £100.  The  Miamis  professed  friendship  ,*  and 
their  profession  w^as  speedily  put  to  the  test. 

While  Croghan  and  Gist  were  still  at  Piqua,  four  Ot- 
tawas  from  the  Detroit  appeared  in  the  council-house. 
They  brought  with  them  a  French  flag,  which  they 
raised  bv  the  side  of  the  British  ensi^'u  :  and  to  the  usual 
strings  of  wampum  they  added  ten  pounds  of  tobacco 
and  two  kegs  of  the  milk  of  the  wilderness,  also  called 
French  brandy.  "  The  French  king,"  said  the  Ottawa 
envoys,  "  had  made  clean  the  road  to  his  officers,  and  he 
had  sent  an  invitation  to  the  Miamis  to  visit  his  posts." 
To  this  Gist's  friend,  the  Piankesha  chief,  replied  that 
foul  and  bloody  was  the  way  to  the  French,  who  had 

79 


THE  NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

made  |)risonersof  some  of  the  English,  whom  the  ^liamis 
regarded  as  their  brothers.  Therefore  had  they  cleared 
the  way  for  the  English.  So  the  Ottawas  were  forced 
to  return  unsuccessful. 

Gratified  by  his  success,  Gist  parted  from  his  com- 
paiiions,  and  returned  to  the  Shawanese  town  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Scioto,  where  the  Miami  alliance  was  cele- 
brated with  feastinof  and  firin^.  Then  he  floated  down 
the  Ohio  nearly  to  the  present  site  of  Louisville.  It  was 
now  the  18th  of  March;  G'st  had  been  journeying  for 
four  months  and  a  half;  he  had  accomplished  every- 
thing he  had  set  out  to  do;  and  with  a  light  heart  he 
turned  his  face  to  the  south,  intending  to  make  bis  way 
homew^ard  up  the  valley  of  the  Cuttawa,  or  Kentucky, 
River.  Glorious  beyond  description  were  the  sights  that 
greeted  his  ravished  eyes  as  from  hill -top  after  hill- 
top the  wild  and  beautiful  scenery  of  Kentucky  in  its 
robes  of  fresh  >t  green  lay  spread  out  before  him.  It 
w^as  May  when  he  poled  his  hastily  built  raft  across  the 
Great  Kanawha;  and  it  was  almost  June  when,  weary 
and  footsore,  he  reached  the  banks  of  the  Yadkin,  to 
find  as  his  only  welcome  a  deserted  cabin  and  the  un- 
mistakable signs  of  an  Indian  massacre.  Happily,  how- 
ever, his  own  family  had  been  spared,  and  had  taken 
refuge  at  a  Eoanoke  settlement. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Lee,  soon  after  the  Ohio  Company 
was  launched,  threw  the  active  management  into  the 
hands  of  Lawrence  AV^ashington,  who  entered  into  the 
project  zealously.  On  making  overtures  to  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch-  who  had  come  into  the  Shenandoah  Yallev, 
he  found  that  their  one  objection  to  taking  up  lands  on 
the  Ohio  was  that  they  would  be  compelled  to  support 
a  clergvman  of  the  Established  Church,  when  few  under- 

stood  and  none  made  use  of  him.      He  therefore  wrote  to 

80 


TIJE    ENGLISH    IN    THE    OHIO    COUNTUY 

Mr.  Iliinbury,  in  the  hope  that  the  latter  might  obtain 
from  the  king  some  sort  of  a  charter  to  prevent  the 
residents  on  the  Ohio  and  its  branches  being  subject  to 
parish  taxes.  "  I  am  well  assured,"  he  continues,  ''  that 
Ave  shall  never  obtain  it  by  law  here.  This  colony  was 
greatly  settled  the  latter  part  of  Charles  the  First's 
time,  and  during  the  usurpation,  by  zealous  churchmen; 
and  that  spirit,  which  was  then  brought  in,  has  ever 
since  continued,  so  that  except  a  few  Quakers  we  have 
no  dissenters.  But  what  has  been  the  consequence? 
We  have  increased  by  slow  degrees,  except  negroes  and 
convicts,  while  our  neighboring  colonies,  whose  natural 
advantages  are  greatly  inferior  to  ours,  have  become 
populous."  To  Governor  Dinwiddie,  then  in  London, 
Lawrence  Washington  also  wrote  that  the  Dutch  would 
take  fifty  thousand  acres  of  the  company's  lands,  pro- 
vided they  couhl  be  assured  of  religious  freedom;  but 
the  governor,  although  he  was  heartily  interested  in  the 
project,  despaired  of  obtaining  from  an  over-busy  parlia- 
ment and  ministry  the  attention  necessary  to  procure 
the  requisite  exemption.  Thus,  at  the  very  beginning, 
arose  that  question  of  religious  freedom  which  was  to 
find  such  ample  recognition  when  the  great  charter  of 
the  Northwest  came  to  be  written. 

In  June,  1752,  the  Indians  met  Gist  and  the  Virginian 
commissioners  at  Logstown,  and  in  spite  of  French  in- 
trigues, made  a  treaty  whereby  the  Ohio  Company  was 
to  be  allowed  to  make  settlements  south  of  the  Ohio, 
and  to  build  a  fort  at  the  forks  of  that  river.  Indeed, 
the  Indians  had  urged  upon  Croghan  that  the  Pennsyl- 
vanians  build  such  a  fort;  but  the  Pennsylvania  as- 
sembly had  neglected  their  opportunities,  and  had  ut- 
terly failed  to  sui^port  Croghan  in  his  dealings  with 
the  Indians.     Gist  surveyed  the  company's  lands;  he  re- 

F  81 


THE    XOIITIIWEST    UNDKU    TIIKEK    FLAGS 

moved  his  own  habitation  from  the  Yadkin,  and  began 
the  erection  of  a  fortified  trading -post  at  Shurtees 
Creek,  on  the  east  haak  of  the  Ohio,  a  little  below  the 
present  site  of  Pittsburg.  Thus  far  everything  promised 
well  for  the  Ohio  ])roject.  The  Indians  were  well  dis- 
posed to  the  English;  colonial  traders  overran  the  entire 
country  from  the  very  gates  of  Montreal  to  the  Missis- 
sippi ;  and  but  for  the  posts  on  the  Great  Lakes  and 
their  connecting  waters,  together  with  Vincennes  on 
the  Wabash  and  Fort  Chartres  in  the  Illinois  country, 
the  English  were  at  liberty  to  push  their  settlements 
and  their  trade  tliroughout  the  regions  inhabited  by  the 
most  powerful  tribes,  and  comprising  the  richest  lands 
on  the  continent.  Unfortunately  for  British  interests, 
however,  mutual  jealousies  among  the  colonies,  togetlier 
with  that  deliberation  in  action  which  is  characteristic 
of  popular  governments,  prevented  prompt  and  harmoni- 
ous action  until  France  had  found  a  means  of  compel- 
linf?  the  fickle  savao:es  to  renounce  their  new  friends 
and  to  aid  their  ancient  allies. 

Meanwhile  the  French  were  not  altogether  idle. 
Celeron  de  Bienville,  now  the  commandant  at  Detroit, 
was  engaged  in  planting  on  the  fertile  banks  of  the 
strait  the  French  families  that  liberal  subsidies  in  farm 
implements  had  drawn  thither;  and  at  this  time  the 
town  could  boast  a  population  of  nearly  five  hundred 
whites — the  largest  French  settlement  west  of  Montreal. 
He  was  ordered  from  Quebec  to  drive  the  English 
traders  from  the  Miami  villages,  and  thus  to  realize 
his  occupation  of  the  Ohio  country  in  1749.  The  task, 
however,  required  a  man  of  a  different  stamp.  Charles 
Langlade,  a  young  French  trader  at  Michilimackinac, 
Avho  had  alread}^  acquired  an  ascendency  over  the  Ottawa 
and  Ojibwa  tribes  of  the  northern  portages,  was  now 

82 


THE    ENGLISH    IX    THE    OHIO    COUNTRY 

ready  to  start  on  that  long  and  brilliant  career  of  ])etty 
warfare  that  makes  his  name  and  fame  a  part  of  the 
history  of  the  Nortinvest.  Early  in  the  June  of  T7o2, 
Celoron  from  the  block-house  bastion  of  Fort  Pontchar- 
train  beheld  far  up  the  placid  river  a  fleet  of  swift  dart- 
ing canoes,  hurrying  through  the  shallow  passage  be- 
tween the  wooded  island  and  the  mainland.  As  the 
flotilla  approached  the  little  town  the  })rows  of  the 
canoes  were  forced  up  on  the  sands  at  the  foot  of  the 
palisades,  and  a  crowd  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  warriors 
from  Michilimackinac  tumbled  from  the  boats  and  went 
howling  through  the  narrow  streets  of  the  little  town. 
At  their  head  was  Charles  Langlade,  more  savage  than 
anv  Indian  in  the  crowd.  What  Celoron  and  his  French- 
men  dared  not  undertake,  that  Langlade  and  his  fol- 
lowers speedily  accomplished.  Crossing  the  corner  of 
Lake  Erie,  the  fleet  ascended  the  Miami  of  the  Lake, 
and  on  the  21st  of  June  suddenlv  attacked  the  meao:re 
fort  at  Piqua.  Eight  English  traders  ai.d  a  few  Indians 
were  in  the  tow^n.  The  surprise  was  complete.  After  a 
short  fiofht  fourteen  Miamis  and  one  trader  were  killed. 
The  chief,  known  as  Old  Britain,  was  boiled  and  eaten ; 
the  trading-house  was  plundered,  and  ^ve  traders  were 
captured  and  carried  to  Governor  Duquesne,  who  rec- 
ommended for  Langlade  a  pension  suited  to  the  hus- 
band of  a  squaw ! ' 

^  Parkman's  Montcalm  arid  Wolfe  (Boston,  1898),  vol.  i.,  p.  89. 
See  also  Minutes  of  the  Provincial  Council  of  Pennaylcania,  vol.  iv., 
p.  599. 

The  statement  that  on  this  occasion  the  Ottawas  were  led  by 
Charles  de  Langlade  is  made  on  the  authority  of  Parkman  {Moftt- 
calm  and  Wolfe,  vol.  i. ,  p.  89).  Tasse  in  his  elaborate  sketch  of 
Langlade  makes  no  reference  to  the  episode.  The  Pennsylvania 
records  also  are  silent  as  to  the  leader  of  the  Indians  ;  and  Parkman 
himself  repeatedly  speaks  of  Langlade  as  married   to  a  squaw  at 

83 


TIIK    XOUTllWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

Meanwliile  Duqnesne  was  propnriiif^  to  cut  ofT  the 
English  from  tlio  Ohio  country.  Early  in  the  spring 
of  1753  a  mixed  force  of  king's  troops,  Canadians,  and 
Indians,  numbering  not  far  from  lifteen  hundred  per- 
sons, set  out  from  ]\[ontreal,  and  in  due  time  reached 
that  most  excellent  harbor  on  Lake  Ei'ie  then  called 
Presqu'  Isle,  now  known  as  Erie.  There  they  built  a 
post.  Then,  advancing,  they  built  another  on  Le  lioeuf 
creek,  and  still  a  third  at  Venango  on  the  Alleghany. 
Sickness  in  the  ranks  and  incompetency  among  the 
leaders  made  them  pause;  but  there  the  gauntlet  was 
thrown  down. 

Reports  of  the  French  advance  having  reached  Govern- 
or Dinwiddle,  he  conceived  it  to  be  his  duty  to  defend 
the  Virginia  frontiers  against  the  invaders  ;  and  he  repre- 
sented to  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  North  Carolina 
the  ])eril  of  the  situation.  The  northern  colonies  held 
back.  Governor  Dinwiddle,  who  had  become  a  member 
of  the  Ohio  Company,  was  not  slow  to  see  that  the  plans 
of  the  corporation  would  come  to  nothing  if  once  the 
French  were  allowed  to  reach  the  Ohio.  lie  therefore 
resolved  to  send  a  messenger  to  ascertain  the  numbers 

Green  Bay.  This  is  inaccurate.  Langlade's  eldest  child  was  the 
son  of  an  Indian  woman  ;  but  she  was  never  his  wife.  Langlade's 
father  married  an  Indian  woman,  the  daughter  of  an  Ottawa  chief ; 
but  she  was  hardly  to  be  called  a  squaw,  for  at  the  time  of  her 
marriage  to  Augustin  de  Langlade  she  was  tlie  widow  of  a  French 
fur-trader,  and  the  mother  of  his  seven  children,  all  of  whom  proved 
to  be  very  respectable  people.  Charles  de  Langlade  married  on 
August  13,  1754,  Charlotte  Bourassa,  the  daughter  of  a  French  trader 
of  wealth  and  position,  and  it  was  some  time  after  their  marriage  that 
they  went  to  live  at  Green  Bay.  Moreover,  she  was  known  to  be 
mortally  afraid  of  Indians,  and  on  one  occasion  nearly  suffocated  her- 
self by  hiding  under  a  lumber-pile,  on  the  approach  of  a  band  of 
IVIenominees.  See  Tasse's  sketch  of  Charles  de  Langlade  in  Wisconsin 
Historical  Re]wrts,  1867. 

84 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

(From  a  portrait  p.untPd  in  ITT-J  l.y  c.  \v.  ivui...  „ow  nun.d  hv  General  George 
\\u<lmigtou  fiif^tis  Lee,  of  Lexiugtou,  Virgiuia.") 


TIIH    E\(iMSII    IN    TIIK    OHIO    COUNTUV 

and  force  of  the  French,  and  to  deliver  to  their  com- 
manding otiicer  the  demand  of  Virginia,  that  all  French 
troops  be  withdrawn  ivom  the  country  included  within 
the  chartered  limits  of  that  colonv\  The  messenfjer 
selected  for  this  delicate  and  arduous  task  was  Major 
George  Washington,  then  a  sedate  youth  of  twenty-one, 
who  had  held  the  jxjsition  of  adjutant -general  in  the 
Virginia  militia  since  he  was  nineteen.  The  selection 
was  eminently  fitting.  Major  Washington,  as  the  exec- 
utor of  the  estate  of  his  brother  Lawrence,  u^as  now 
largely  interested  in  tlie  success  of  the  Ohio  Company, 
and  he  was  not  likely  to  repeat  the  failure  of  Dinwiddie's 
first  commissioner.  Captain  William  Trent,  who  went  no 
nearer  the  French  than  Logstown. 

Armed  with  proper  credentials,  Washington  started 
from  Mount  Vernon,  in  company  with  Jacob  Vanbraam, 
a  broken-down  officer,  who  had  taught  the  young  major 
the  art  of  fence  and  had  instructed  him  generally  in  the 
duties  of  a  soldier,  and  who  was  now  to  serve  as  his 
interpreter.  Reaching  the  Monongahela,  Washington 
secured  the  services  of  Christopher  Gist,  whose  success 
in  dealing  with  the  Indians  two  vears  before  had  estab- 
lished  his  reputation  with  the  company  ;  and  the  party 
was  completed  by  four  hired  servitors,  Ijarnaby  Currin 
and  John  McQuire,  a  pair  of  Scotch-Irish  traders,  and 
Ilenrv  Stewart  and  AVilliam  Jenkins.  On  reachin^: 
Frazier's  they  learned  that  the  French  commander, 
Marin,  had  died  and  that  his  troops  had  gone  into  win- 
ter-quarters. Twenty -five  days  out  from  Williamsburg 
the  party,  reinforced  by  Shingiss,  King  of  the  Dela- 
wares,  reached  Logstown,  where  they  awaited  the  com- 
ing of  the  Half-king  of  the  Six  Xations,  from  whom 
the}^  learned  the  whereabouts  of  the  French.  This  chief 
had  already  been  to  the  invaders  with  a  demand  that 

85 


TIIK    NORTIIWRST    rXDEK    TIIKKE    FLAGS 

they  witlidraw  from  tin;  Indians'  roiintry.  **  Fathers," 
ho  had  said  to  th(»  Frcncli,  *'  both  you  and  th<5  Kii^Mish 
are  wliitt;;  wo  live  in  tho  oountrv  betwoon  ;  thorofore 
tho  land  belongs  neither  to  one  nor  the  other.  But  tho 
Great  Hein^  above  allowed  it  to  bo  a  place  of  residence 
for  us  ;  so,  lathers,  I  (hisiro  you  to  withdraw,  as  I  have 
done  our  brothers  the  English;  for  I  will  keep  you  at 
arnrs-len<,^th.  I  lay  this  down  as  a  trial  for  both,  to  see 
which  will  have  the  greatest  regard  for  it,  and  that  side 
we  will  stand  by,  and  make*  efpial  sharers  with  us.  Our 
brothers,  the  English,  have  heard  this,  and  I  now  come 
to  tell  it  to  you;  for  I  am  not  afraid  to  discharge  you 
olf  this  land.^^' 

To  this  vigorous  speech  tho  Frenchman  had  made  con- 
temptuous answer  that  he  was  not  afraid  of  (lies  or  mos- 
(piitoes,  for  such  the  Indians  were;  that  he  should  go 
down  the  Ohio,  build  upon  it,  and  tread  under  his  feet 
all  opposition.  The  land,  he  said,  did  not  belong  to  the 
Indians  ;  for  tho  French  had  taken  possession  of  the 
Ohio  while  yet  the  present  tribes  were  dwelling  else- 
where. 

As  between  the  French  and  the  English,  the  Indians 
might  well  side  with  the  former ;  because  the  French 
never  contemplated  the  possession  and  cultivation  of  the 
lands,  but  merelv  the  establishment  of  trad ino:-stat ions. 
The  French  ])roposed  to  trade  with  the  Indians:  the  Eng- 
lish colonists  to  dispossess  them.  Eventually  the  Eng- 
lish policy  came  to  be  but  a  continuation  of  the  French, 
while  the  policy  of  the  colonists  was  ever  to  acquire  by 
purchase  or  by  force,  and  to  bring  under  cultivation  the 
lands  that  formed  the  hunting-grounds  of  the  Indians. 
It  may  be  admitted  that  the  French  policy  was  the  more 
just  to  the  Indian ;  but  the  Scotch-Irish,  the  Germans, 
the  Swiss,  and  other  peoples  of  Europe,  escaping  from 

86 


tin:    KNTiLlSIl    IN    T  JI  K    OHIO    corNTuv 

the  i!i(()l«M'al)l<'  conditions  of  the  Old  AVojJd,  could  not  ho 
sto|)|)cd  in  their  rush  to  miiko  lionics  for  tliomsolves 
in  the  fertile  wildernesses  of  Aniericii.  Moreover,  there 
was  much  truth  in  the  reply  of  the  French  comnuinder 
to  the  h{ilf-kin«^.  No  one  of  the  tribes  then  in  posses- 
sion of  the  Ohio  country  had  long  held  the  lands  they 
then  occu[)ied  :  the  tribes  were  at  war  with  one  another  ; 
and  famine  and  disease  added  their  work  to  tlie  desti'uc- 
tion  that  ever  stalked  through  the  forests  and  over  the 
prairies  of  the  Northwest.  To  tnaintain  the  richest 
lands  on  earth  as  a  game  preserve  for  a  few  savages 
when  hundreds  of  thousands  of  civilized  beings  were 
seeking  homes  and  liberty  might  be  theoretical  justice, 
but  certainl}^  it  was  not  consistent  with  the  strongest 
impulses  of  human  nature. 

On  December  4th,  Washington  and  his  party,  attended 
by  the  half-king,  and  two  other  chiefs  commissioned  to 
return  the  French  belts,  reached  Venango,  an  old  Indian 
town  near  the  junction  of  French  Creek  with  the  Alle- 
ghany. There,  in  a  house  of  which  the  Englishman 
John  Frazier  had  been  dis])ossessed,  dwelt  Captain  Jon- 
caire,  who  received  the  embassy  with  effusive  courtesy. 
When  wine  had  loosed  the  tongues  of  the  French,  they 
swore  they  meant  to  take  possession  of  the  Ohio,  which 
they  claimed  by  virtue  of  "  a  discovery  made  by  one  La 
Salle,  sixty  years  ago."  They  knew  the  English  could 
raise  double  the  number  of  men  the  French  could ;  but 
they  counted  (and  with  good  reason)  on  the  dilatoriness 
of  their  enemies  to  prevent  the  success  of  any  English 
undertaking.  In  Joncaire  Washington  was  called  on  to 
deal  with  an  adept.  The  son  of  a  French  officer  and  a 
Seneca  squaw,  he  had  all  the  advantages  that  come  from 
being  able  to  address  the  savages  in  their  own  tongue. 

He  had  acted  as  scout  for  Celeron's  expedition,  braving 

87 


THE    NOPwTIIWEST    UXDEIl    THREE    FLAGS 

many  a  danger  from  Indians  favorable  to  the  English ; 
and  it  was  due  to  his  intrigues  that  the  Iroquois  were 
shaken  in  their  allegiance  t  the  British.  He  now  en- 
deavored to  win  over  Washington's  red  companions,  but 
in  this  he  was  unsuccessful ;  and  after  many  delays 
the  embassy  reached  Le  Boeuf,  where  Wasiiington  pre- 
sented liis  letters  to  the  commander,  Legardeur  de  St. 
Pierre,  "  an  elderly  gentleman  with  much  the  air  of  a 
soldier." 

To  the  qualities  of  a  soldier  St.  Pierre  added  the  ac- 
complishments of  a  diplomat.  First  a  translation  of 
Washington's  letters  was  made  and  duly  connected ;  then 
three  days  were  spent  in  preparing  an  answer  to  the 
effect  that  the  communication  of  his  honor,  the  Governor 
of  Virginia,  had  been  received  and  respectfully  referred 
to  the  Marquis  Duquesne.  at  Quebec,  pending  whose 
reply  he,  St.  Pierre,  would  continue  to  execute  his  orders 
by  expelling  all  Englishmen  whom  he  found  within  the 
domains  of  his  most  Christian  Majest3\  Wliile  this 
reply  was  in  preparation  the  French  were  using  every 
means  to  detach  the  Indian  chiefs  from  the  English  in- 
terest; lat  here  the  youthful  envoy  was  more  than  a 
match  for  his  eldenv  rivals.  On  the  16th  of  December, 
Washington  turned  his  face  homeward;  and  after  many 
perils,  including  a  narrow  escape  from  the  bullet  of  a 
treacherous  Indian,  he  and  Gist  returned  to  Virginia. 

Washington's  journal  of  his  expedition  to  the  Ohio, 
being  sent  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  and  by  them  pub- 
lished in  England,  aroused  the  nation  to  a  sense  of  the 
peril  in  which  English  territory  was  placed  by  the  ad- 
vance of  the  French.  The  immediate  result  was  an 
order  from  the  Lords  of  Trade  addressed  to  the  cjov- 
ernors  of  the  colonies,  commanding  them  to  meet  and 
consult  as  to  steps  for  united  action  against  the  en- 

88 


THE    ENGLISH     IX    THE    OHIO    COUNTRY 

croachments  of  the  French,  and  to  renew  the  covenant 
with  the  Six  Nations. 

Governor  Diinviddie,  also,  set  about  putting  Virginia 
on  a  war  footing.  The  military  estabhshnient  was  in- 
creased to  six  companies  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
Joshua  P'ry,  with  Washingt(»n  as  lieutenant- colonel ; 
and  to  stimulate  enlistments  the  fjovernor  made  a  f!:rant 
of  two  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  on  the  Oliio,  to 
be  divided  amonor  the  officers  and  soldiers  eno^aofed  in 
the  expedition.  While  Washington  was  recruiting  his 
force  at  Alexandria,  Captain  Trent  had  raised  a  com- 
pany of  traders  and  woodsmen,  and  had  marched  to  the 
forks  of  the  Ohio,  where  they  began  to  build  a  fort  on 
the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Pittsburg.  Washington 
reached  Wills  Creek  on  April  20,  1754,  and  five  days 
later  Captain  Trent's  ensign,  Mr.  Ward,  arrived  from 
the  Ohio  with  the  disagreeable  news  that  on  the  ITtli 
M.  Contrecoeur,  with  a  thousand  men,  had  appeared  be- 
fore the  half-finished  fort  and  demanded  its  surrender. 
Captaio  Trent  was  at  home,  and  Ensign  Warci  taking 
counsel  with  Washington's  Indian  friend  the  half-king, 
made  terms  with  Contrecoeu'*  and  withdrew.  AVith  this 
seizure  of  the  Ohio  Company's  post  by  a  French  armed 
force  began  the  French  and  Indian  War,  which  raged 
for  nine  years  and  reached  more  than  half-way  round 
the  glob-^ 

The  news  of  this  reverse  Washington  immediately 
communicated  to  Governor  Hamilton  of  Pennsvlvania, 
and  to  the  Governor  of  Marvland,  as  well  as  to  Governor 
Dinwiddie.  The  latter  already  had  sought  the  aid  of 
New  York  and  South  Carolina.  In  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania  the  assemblies  were  inclined  to  the  opin- 
ion that  perhaps  France  had  the  best  claims  to  the  Ohio. 
In  the  latter  colon}^  the  proprietors  absolutely  refused 

89 


TIJE    NOUTllWEST    UNDER    T  II  It  E  E    FLAGS 

to  allow  their  own  lands  to  l)e  taxed  for  purposes  of  de- 
fence ;  and  in  the  other  colonies  either  the  danger  seemed 
remote,  or  questions  of  prerogative  between  the  elective 
assemblies  and  the  royal  governors  prevented  action. 

All  unwittingly  England  now  gave  the  colonies  a  use- 
ful lesson  in  self-government.  In  their  natural  desire  to 
throw  on  the  colonial  treasuries  the  burden  of  defending 
the  frontiers  against  the  encroachments  of  the  French, 
the  Lords  of  Trade  summoned  the  various  governments 
to  send  deleo:ates  to  an  assemblv  to  be  convened  at  Al- 
bany  in  the  June  of  1754  for  the  purpose  of  enlisting 
the  assistance  of  the  Indians  and  concerting  measures 
for  common  defence.  Albany  was  selected  for  the  meet- 
ing-place  because  of  its  proximity  to  the  lands  of  the 
Six  Nations,  alwavs  friendlv  to  the  Eno^lish.  Indeed,  at 
this  time  England  was  disposed  to  base  her  title  to  the 
Ohio  regions  not  on  the  voyage  of  John  Howard,  who, 
in  1742,  had  floated  down  the  Ohio  in  a  buffalo -skin 
canoe,  only  to  be  captured  by  the  French  on  the  Missis- 
sippi ;  nor  on  the  treaty  made  by^  the  Pennsylvania  in- 
terpreter, Conrad  Weiser,  at  Logstown,  in  1748;  nor  yet 
on  the  prior  Lancaster  treaty  of  1744,  recognizing  the 
ritrht  of  the  kino-  to  all  lands  withui  the  colony  of  Yir- 
ginia.  A  much  wider,  a^''  ngh  at  the  same  time  a 
much  more  indefinite,  basib  was  found  in  the  treaty  of 
Albany,  in  1684,  when  the  Six  Nations  placed  all  their 
lands  under  the  protection  of  England.  This  treaty  was 
taken  to  cover  the  lands  conquered  by  the  Six  Nations 
between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Great  Lakes ;  and  on 
it  New  York  afterwards,  as  we  shall  see,  claimed  the 
Ohio  country^  in  opposition  to  the  claims  of  Virginia  and 
Connecticut. 

Although  the  Albany  convention  failed  to  accomplish 

the  objects  for  which  it  was  called,  it  introduced  two 

90 


TIIK    EXGLISIl    IX    TIIK    OHIO    CO!  NTH Y 

men  who  were  destined  to  have  a  large  share  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  western  country.  The  first  of  these  was 
Colonel  William  Johnson  (afterwards  known  as  Sir  Will- 
iam Johnson),  whose  influence  over  the  Six  Xations, 
acquired  by  years  of  honest  dealing,  familiaiity  with 
Indian  life  and  manners,  and  absolute  steadfastness  of 
purpose,  exceeded  that  of  any  other  person  who  ever 
had  trade  relations  with  that  most  powerful  of  all  Ind- 
ian confederacies.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the 
convention  intrusted  to  Benjamin  Franklin  the  task  of 
expressing  its  thanks  to  Colonel  Johnson  for  his  compre- 
hensive plan  for  dealing  with  the  Six  ^'ations,  and  for 
defeating  the  plans  of  the  French  in  their  encroach- 
ments ;  and  it  is  more  than  probable  that  then  and  after- 
wards Franklin  obtained  from  Colonel  Johnson  many  of 
the  facts  and  ideas  that  he  afterwards  used  to  such  good 
purpose  in  presenting  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from 
holdino^  the  Ohio  res^ion. 

Franklin's  own  contribution  to  the  occasion,  however, 
was  nothing  less  than  a  well-worked-out  plan  for  a  def- 
inite union  of  the  colonies  under  a  governor  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  crown — a  plan  that  was  adopted  by  the 
convention  only  to  be  rejected  by  both  the  colonies  and 
the  crown  ;  by  the  colonies  because  it  smacked  too  much 
of  prerogative,  and  by  the  ministry  because  there  was  in 
it  too  much  of  democracy!  There  is  o^ood  reason  to 
believe  that  had  a  different  fate  attended  this  scheme 
the  war  of  the  Revolution  would  have  been  averted,  at 
least  for  a  time.' 

Eeturning  to  Philadelphia,  Franklin  soon  after  pre- 
pared for  Governor  Pownall  that  almost  prophetic  paper 
in  which  he  argues  that  England  should, take  steps  to 

'  Spurks's  Franklin,  vol.  iii.  Spurks  gives  tlic  Franklin  plan  of 
union,  together  with  his  paper  on  the  Ohio  country. 

91 


THE    NOUTllWEST    UNDER    TIIKEE    FLAGS 

plant  colonies  in  "  the  great  country  back  of  the  Ap- 
palachian Mountains,  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio,  and 
between  that  river  and  the  lakes,"  a  region  '^now  well 
known,  both  to  the  English  and  French,  to  be  one  of 
the  finest  in  North  America,  for  the  extreme  richness 
and  fertility  of  the  land;  healthy  temperature  of  the 
air,  the  mildness  of  the  climate;  the  plenty  of  hunt- 
ing and  fishing  and  fowling ;  the  facility  of  trade  with 
the  Indians;  and  the  vast  convenience  of  inland  naviga- 
tion or  water  carriage  by  the  kikes  and  great  rivers, 
many  hundreds  of  leagues  around."  His  plan  included 
a  strong  fort  at  Niagara,  with  armed  vessels  on  the 
lakes,  and  smaller  forts  on  Lake  Erie.  A  second  colony 
was  to  have  its  seat  on  the  Scioto, "  the  finest  spot  of  its 
bigness  in  all  Xorth  America,"  with  the  advantage  of 
*' sea-coal  in  plenty  (even  above  ground  in  two  places) 
for  fuel,  when  the  woods  shall  be  destroyed." 

Events  now  hurried  Eno^land  into  makinof  a  national 
rather  than  a  colonial  issue  of  the  advance  of  the  French 
into  the  territories  claimed  by  the  British.  In  May, 
1754,  Washington  in  command  of  the  advance  force 
raised  by  Virginia,  and  aided  by  the  half -king,  fell 
upon  a  French  detachment,  and  in  a  quarter-hour  action 
killed  the  commander,  M.  de  Jumonville,  and  nine  others, 
taking  twenty- one  ])risoners.  On  July  3d,  however, 
Washington  was  attacked  at  his  half-built  Fort  Keces- 
sity,  and  was  compelled  to  withdraw,  after  a  spirited 
contest  of  nine  hours.  Evidentlv  the  time  had  come  for 
Eno;land  to  assert  her  claims  to  the  Northwest. 

Ou  the  2<  li  of  February,  1755,  amid  the  alternate 
heats  and  chills  of  a  Virginia  winter.  General  Edward 
Braddock  appeared  on  the  Potomac  as  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  His  Majesty's  forces  in  America;  and  in  due 
time  quartered  five  companies  of  his  little  army  at  Alex- 

92 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    THE    OHIO    COUNTRY 

iindria,  disposing  the  other  fifteen  companies  at  the  pre- 
tentious town  of  Fredericksburg,  at  Hhidensburg,  tlien  a 
considerable  tobacco  port,  and  at  five  or  six  other  strag- 
gling villages  in  the  neighborhood.  Meantime  the  gen- 
eral quartered  himself  upon  (Governor  Dinwiddie  at  the 
brick  palace  in  Williamsburg,  whence  he  sent  out  his 
summons  for  the  leading  men  of  America  to  meet  him 
in  council  at  Alexandria,  whither  he  shortly  repaired. 
Arrofi^ant  vet  convivial,  hau<ditv  but  condescending?, 
Braddock  soon  brought  into  subjection  the  discordant 
forces  with  which  he  was  called  ui)on  to  deal.  He  had 
brought  with  him  from  England  two  regiments  of  in- 
fantrj^,  each  five  hundred  strong,  and  these  he  proposed 
to  supplement  with  an  ecpial  number  of  provincials. 
Never  before  had  America  seen  so  brave  an  array. 
Braddock,  himself  the  son  of  a  major-general,  had  been 
trained  to  arms  in  the  Coldstream  Guards,  a  regiment  un- 
surpassed for  valor,  the  very  flower  of  the  British  army. 
In  this  model  regiment  he  had  won  promotion  by  gal- 
lantrv  on  the  field  of  battle:  and  his  selection  as  com- 
mander  of  the  American  expedition  Avas  made  by  no  less 
a  personage  than  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  who  took  an 
intense  interest  in  all  that  related  to  the  campaign,  and 
who  had  repeatedly  admired  Braddock's  coolness  and 
intrepidity  when  under  lire.* 

Washington,  in  no  mood  to  be  humiliated  by  accept- 
ing a  command  in  which  he  as  a  provincial  would  be 
subordinate  to  the  lowest  subaltern  holding  a  king's 
commission,  viewed  from  a  distance  the  preparations  for 
an  expedition  in  which  he  burned  to  share.  The  astute 
Braddock  avoided  the  difficulty  by  making  the  lover  of 
the  whistling-bullet^  a  member  of  his  militarv  familv: 

'  Lowdermilk's  Cumberland,  p.  97. 

'  Horace  Walpole,  in  his  Memoirs,  makes  merry  over  a  quotation  in 

93 


THE    NOKTIIWKST    INDKl:    TIIKEE     ILAiiS 

and  thus  lio  s<'cure(l  the  dovotod  services  of  the  bravest 
and  shrewdest  lighter  in  all  America,  and  this,  too,  with- 
out taking  a  jot  or  tittle  out  of  the  king's  order  of  prece- 
dence. 

From  his  stone  castle  on  the  Mohawk  came  Colonel 
William  .fohnson,  to  be  placed  in  charge  of  Indian  affairs, 
as  a  step])ing-stone  to  the  baronetcy  as  dear  to  his  van- 
ity as  was  a  silver  medal  to  a  savage.  To  Johnson  was 
assi<::ned  the  task  of  leadiim'  a  force  a<^ainst  Crown  Point. 
From  slow-going,  peace-loving  Philadelphia  rode  Benja- 
min Franklin,  the  shrewd  postmaster-general  of  the  colo- 
nies, then  in  his  fortv-ninth  vear.  At  his  side  trotted 
two  royal  governors:  Delancy,  of  New  Yoi'k,  and  the 
urbane  Shirley,  of  Massachusetts,  who  was  to  lead  the 
attack  on  Niagara  and  Fort  Frontenac.  To  Franklin  it 
was  given  to  wring  from  the  close-fisted  farmers  of  Penn- 
sylvania the  means  of  transportation  and  the  supplies 
necessary  for  the  quartermaster's  and  commissary's  de- 
partments; and  with  a  zeal  quite  contrar\^  to  military 
knowledge  he  loaded  the  officers  with  comforts  and  lux- 
uries that  did  much  to  demoralize  the  expedition. 

To  the  admiring  grou]^  gathered  about  the  blazing 
fire  in  the  Alexandria  mansion  that  still  bears  his  name, 
Braddock  told  how  he  would  capture  Fort  Duquesne 
and  then  inarch  on  Fort  Niagara,  driving  the  French 
back  within  their  proper  territory  on  the  St.  Lawrence. 
The  astute  Franklin  flattered  while  yet  he  suggested 


some  letter  of  Washington's  in  which  tlie  j'ouug  soldier  confesses  that 
he  loves  to  hear  the  bullets  whistle.  Washington  would  not  deny  that 
he  wrote  some  such  tiling  ;  but  excused  himself  by  saying  that,  if  he 
did,  it  was  when  he  was  young.  It  is  dilhcult  to  realize  that  Wash- 
ington ever  was  young  in  the  sense  of  saying  or  doing  an  unpremedi- 
tated thing.  The  incident  therefore  is  valuable  in  that  it  tends  to 
humanize  his  character. 

94 


UKNKUAL    KDWAIJl)    HK  A  I>l)n(K 


THE    KNGLiSll    IN    THE    UlIlU    COl   NTKV 

ambuscades;  but  was  silenced,  if  not  convinced,  bv  the 
lofty  reply  that  the  king's  regular  and  disciplined  troops 
were  invincible,  even  in  tangled  forest  and  foe-lined  de- 
file. AVith  stately  balls  and  convivial  suppers  the  time 
of  prei)aration  was  whiled  away.  Delay  after  delay  en- 
sued. The  \'irginians  were  b(jth  poor  and  haixl  to  move, 
and  the  resources  of  the  country  were  meagre  beyond 
the  belief  of  a  European  commander.  Throughout  the 
languid  spring  the  little  army  watched  eacli  westering 
sun  sink  behind  those  low  hills  and  broad  stretches  of 
river  and  plain,  where  in  less  than  half  a  century  was  to 
be  built  as  the  capital  of  a  new  nation  a  city  to  be  named 
after  the  energetic  youth  who  was  then  and  there  taking 
those  lessons  in  the  art  of  war  that  were  soon  to  enable 
him  to  cope  ^vith  the  highly  trained  armies  of  the  old 
world. 

Amid  the  fierce  heats  of  June  and  early  July,  Brad- 
dock's  armv  drag^red  its  slow  length  towards  the  forks 
of  the  Ohio.  The  Delaware  Indians,  spying  upon  the 
flanks  of  the  English  forces,  saw  that  the  advance 
was  made  in  close  order,  and  quickly  decided  to  sur- 
round the  army,  take  trees,  and  shoot  down  the  soldiers 
like  pigeons.'  On  July  9,  1755,  James  Smith,  a  captive 
at  Fort  Duquesne,  while  watching  the  preparations  for 
the  encounter,  saw  the  Indians  swarm  about  the  ammu- 
nition barrels  before  the  gates,  in  their  haste  to  provide 
themselves  with  powder,  bullets,  and  flints.   Their  wants 

^  Colonel  James  Smith's  Account  of  Remarkable  Occurrences,  1755-9 
(Philadelphia,  1834),  p.  18.  Parkinan  speaks  of  tlie  exceeding  value 
of  this  work.  Smith,  a  Penu93'lvanian,  was  captured  ju<t  before  tlie 
Braddock  defeat  ;  he  was  made  to  run  the  gantlet,  and  afterwards 
was  adopted  in  the  place  of  a  warrior.  For  several  years  he  lived  the 
life  of  an  Indian  ;  and  his  experiences  of  life  among  the  savages  are  in 
the  highest  degree  interesting  and  valuable. 

95 


TIN-:    NOirniWKST    CMUOli    TIIKKi:     I  I.ACJS 

supplied,  they  inarcliod  olF  "in  rank  rntiro,"  accom- 
pani<^<l  by  tlie  Frencli  (^unadiaiis  and  sonic  ic^ulars, 
in  nil  about  four  liundred' — a  foivo  so  small  that  Sniitli 
was  in  hi<^li  liopes  tliiit  he  would  see  them  fleeing  buck 
before  the  Hritish  troops,  and  so  put  an  end  to  his  cap- 
tivity. The  Canacb'ans  and  Lake  Indians,  who  had  been 
summoned  by  Vaudi'cuil,  wore  under  the  command  of 
Cadet  Charles  de  I.an<j:iude,  wliose  influence  over  tlie 
lioi'ce  savages  of  the  north  the  governor  counted  upon 
to  insure  a  repetition  of  his  former  brilliant  exploits. 
It  was  nine  o'clock  when  the  motley  crowd  of  French, 
Canadians,"  and  Indians,  under  the  command  of  De 
Heaujeu,  set  out  from  the  fort;  it  was  half-past  twelve 
when  they  came  upon  the  English  as  the  latte*  were 
enjoying  their  mid-day  meal,  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
Monongahela.  Unnoticed  by  the  English,  each  savage 
and  Canadian  selected  a  tree,  and  prepai'cd  for  the  fray. 
Seeing  the  advantage  of  immediate  attack,  before  the 
English  should  take  up  their  arms,  Langlade  urged  De 
Beauiou  to  be«:in  the  fi^jht.  The  Frenchman,  made  timid 
by  the  number  of  his  opponents,  refused.  Then  Lan- 
glade called  to  council  the  chiefs  of  the  savages,  and  had 
them  insist  upon  an  order  to  begin.  Again  De  Beaujeu 
refused.  Thereupon  Langlade  made  a  second  appeal, 
and  this  time  won  a  reluctant  consent.  Then  from  the 
silent  forest  there  broke  upon  the  astonished  English  a 
noise  of  yelling  savages  and  of  whirring  bullets  like  the 


'  Tasse  puts  the  number  at  two  hundred  and  fifty  French  and  six 
hundred  Indians.  "  Memoir  of  Charles  de  Langlade,"  Wiscanain  His- 
torical Society  Reports,  1876,  p.  130. 

2  Among  the  Canadians  were  Langlade's  brother-in-law,  Souligney, 
his  nephew,  Gautier  de  Vierville  ;  Pierre  Queret,  La  Fortune,  Amable 
de  Gere,  Philip  de  Rocheblave,  and  Louis  Hamelin.  Beaujeu  was 
killed  in  the  encounter. 

96 


Tin:    KN«.LIMI     IN    TIIK    olllo    CurNTIiV 

brt'Jiking  Umkso  of  |Kiruleinonimn.  Tin;  Virginians  died 
\vliil<?  fi;»:litin«,^;  but  J  lie  regul.irs  ran  like  slit»ep  pursued 
by  dogs,  nor*  could  their  gallant  otiicers  rally  them. 
Happily  tor  his  fame.  Ilraddock  himself  found  ii  brave 
death  amid  disfjraceful  defeat;  and  history  is  kind  to 
his  memory,  even  while  reprobating  his  fatal  mistake  of 
over-confidence.  Hraddock's  dis«;raco  was  the  b<'<nnnin<>: 
of  Washington's  fame.  '*  I  luekilv,"  writes  the  voun*^ 
soldier  to  his  mother,  ** escaped  without  a  wound,  though 
I  had  four  bullets  tlirou<'li  my  coat  and  two  horses  shot 
under  me."  Not  oidy  was  his  personal  bravery  con- 
spicuous, but  the  Virginian  method  of  lighting  from  be- 
hind trees  proved  beyond  a  doubt  that  when  properly 
led  the  provincial  was  more  than  a  match  for  the  trained 
European  soldier.  A  commander  and  the  hope  of  suc- 
cess in  any  conflict  that  might  come  between  the  Old 
AVorld  and  the  New  were  born  that  July  dav  in  the 
slaughter-pen  between  the  ravines  of  the  Great  Mead- 
ows. 

The  defeat  of  Draddock  brought  down  upon  the  de- 
fenceless settlers  the  stealthy  raids  of  the  relentless  sav^- 
ages.  With  tire  and  scalping- knife  the  frontier  was 
rolled  back  towards  the  Atlantic,  and  throughout  the 
Indian  towns  on  the  Ohio  were  distributed  the  captive 
wives  and  children  of  the  murdered  backwoodsmen. 
Meantime,  in  Pennsylvania  the  Assembly  wrangled  with 
the  governor  over  questions  of  taxation  ;  New  York 
prudently  regarded  the  matter  as  one  too  remote  for 
her  concern ;  and  Virginia  alone  seemed  willing  to  put 
forth  what  strength  she  had  to  prot'ect  her  borders  and 
retrieve  the  disgrace  of  the  late  defeat.  For  two  years 
Washington  was  charo^ed  with  the  wearving  and  dis- 
heartening  work  of  protecting  the  frontiers  with  a  poor- 
ly equipped,  poorly  organized,  and  ill-supported  militia. 
Q  97 


THE    NOUTIIWEST    UNDER    THREE     FLAGS 

Tliiinkless  us  tlie  task  then  was,  tlios(3  trying  and  per- 
plexing months  were  his  schooling  lor  Lice  vexations  on 
a  larger  scale  during  the  eight  long  years  of  the  Revo- 
lution. The  insuhordination  on  the  part  of  the  troops, 
and  the  bickerings  in  the  assemblies,  which  he  learned 
to  bear  with  patience  in  175*)  and  lTr)7,  were  the  same 
problems  he  was  called  upon  to  face  twenty  years  later 
when  he  came  to  lead  the  armies  of  the  united  colonies.* 
The  expeditions  of  Johnson  and  Shirley  were  scarcely 
more  fortunate  than  was  that  of  Braddock.  On  Sep- 
tember S,  two  months  after  the  mussacre  at  Great 
Meadows,  the  New  York  and  New  England  militia, 
under  Colonel  Ephraim  Williams,'  were  trapped  at 
Lake  George,  and  the  IJraddock  tragedy  was  rej)eated ; 
but  the  rout  cf  the  morning  was  turned  into  victory 
later  in  the  day,  by  reason  largely  of  Johnson's  disposi- 
tion of  the  reserves  and  the  coolness  of  Lvman's  Con- 
necticut  regiment.  There  again  the  superiority  of  the 
backwoods  manner  of  fighting  was  made  apparent;  for 
no  sooner  did  Dieskau's  white -coated  French  regulars 
attempt  an  orderly  attack  on  the  provincials  th:ai  those 
nimble  fighters  mowed  down  the  regular  formations  in 
the  same  manner  that  Braddock's  British  force  was  an- 
nihilated; and  their  brave  German  commander  died  as 
gallant  a  death  as  did  Braddock.  For  his  part  in  the 
fray  Johnson  was  made  a  baronet,  and  received  five 
thousan;'   pounds;  bu*^  dissensions  among  the  ^aro^ln- 

'  Washington's  letters,  given  in  the  second  volume  of  Sparks,  show 
how  perplexing  was  his  work  during  these  years. 

'  Colonel  Williams,  a  few  days  before  his  death  at  Bloody  Pond,  had 
made  a  will  under  which  Williams  College  was  founded;  and  thus  the 
memory  of  a  brave  and  modest  soldier  has  been  perpetuated  in  an  in 
stitution  ever  noted  for  a  modesty  in  aim  and  a  thoroughness  in  exe- 
cution unsurpassed  among  the  colleges  of  the  country. 

98^ 


V,. 


i  V  *'. 


lA 


THE   BURIAL    OF    IJUADDUCK 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    THE    OHIO    COUNTllV 

cials  and  liikewarmness  among  the  Indians  brought  the 
expechtioii  to  a  sudden  end.  Governor  Shirley,  whom 
the  death  of  Braddock  had  made  commander-in-chief, 
marched  a  small  army  to  Oswego;  but  dared  not  at- 
tem[)t  to  capture  Niagara  lest  the  French  from  Fort 
Frontenac  should  take  Oswego,  and  could  not  go  against 
Fort  Frontenac  because  he  had  no  boats  fitted  to  cross 
Lake  Ontario.  Consequently  in  October  he  returned  to 
Albany.  Thus  ended  for  the  British  the  disastrous  year 
of  1755.' 

Desperate  as  was  the  situation  for  English  power  in 
America,  in  Europe  matters  were  still  w^orse.  France 
had  met  England  on  the  Weser,  and  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland lived  to  bear  the  disgrace  from  w^hich  his  pro- 
tege Braddock  was  sheltered  b}^  an  unknown  grave.  By 
the  Convention  of  Closter  Seven  a  brave  army  of  fifteen 
thousand  Englishmen  w^ere  sent  home  disbanded  and  a 
rabble.  Port  Mahon,  the  key  to  the  Mediterranean,  hung 
at  the  girdle  of  the  Duke  of  Richelieu.  England's  ally, 
BVederick,  was  hemmed  within  the  narrow  borders  of 
Saxony  by  the  wolves  gathered  from  the  Seine  to  the 
Volga,  all  snarling  to  tear  Prussia  to  pieces.  Evun  on 
the  sea  the  red  cross  of  St.  George  drooped  from  the 
mast-head  of  Admiral  Byngs  fleeing  flagship;  while  in 
remote  India  the  British  merchant  saw  his  expulsion 
decreed  by  a  French  adventurer.  In  parliament  corrup- 
tion walked  hand  in  hand  with  incompetency. 

In  that  day  of  wrath  and  ashes  of  empire,  William 
Pitt  was  whirled  into  power.  Making  political  corrup- 
tion his  slave,  with  Newcastle  for  overseer,  Pitt  infused 
his  own  vigor  into  both  parliament  and  army.  Into  the 
military  chest  of  Frederick  he  poured  that  stream  of 

'Patkman's  }rontcalm  arid  Wolfe   i?':,dtOD,  1898),  vol.  i.,  p.  339. 

99 


TIIH    NOKTIIWKST    U  N  D  P:  K    TIIUEK    KLAOS 


n 


;ol(l  needed  to  enable  the  Prussian  emperor  to  maintain 
the  armies  he  led  with  siuh  consiimmat(^  skill  as  to 
make  men  call  him  Great.  In  India  "the  bov-soldier 
of  Arcot,"  on  »Iune  23,  1T.'>7,  hy  the  victory  of  i*lassey, 
lakl  the  foundation  of  England's  East-Indian  Em[)ire; 
and  in  ^"ovember,  1751»,  Admiral  Ilawke,  scorning  the 
shoals  and  reefs  of  Quiberon  Bay,  ruined  a  French  fleet 
ready  to  transport  a  French  army  gathered  to  invade 
England.' 

It  was  in  America  particularly  that  Pitt  determined 
lastingly  to  punish  England's  inveterate  foe.  From  his 
cabinet  the  generals  of  his  choice  went  forth  to  their 
work  animated  bv  a  courao:e  and  a  zeal  such  as  thev  had 
never  before  known.  xVmherst  and  Boscawen  opened 
the  campaign  in  1758  with  the  reduction  of  Louisburg, 
reputed  the  strongest  fortress  in  the  Xew  World  ;  Aber- 
crombie  was  repulsed  at  Ticonderoga,  but  the  next  year 
Amherst,  the  fortress  builder,  worked  his  slow  but  sure 
way  from  the  Hudson  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  tale  of 
Wolfe's  daring  victory  and  heroic  death  on  the  Plains 
of  Abraham  is  still  the  favorite  theme  of  historian  and 
novelist.  A  success  less  brilliant,  but  not  less  impor- 
tant; a  success  scarcely  less  tragic  m  its  ending,  and 
almost  as  hardlv  earned,  was  the  steady  march  of 
Forbes  through  the  unbroken  forests  of  Pennsylvania 
and  over  the  Alleghanies  to  force  the  evacuation  of  Fort 
Ducjuesne. 

In  the  Julv  of  1758.  General  John  Forbes  o^athered 
his  little  army  at  Baystown,  now  Bedford,  on  the  east- 
ern slope  of  the  Alleghanies.  There  was  Colonel  Henry 
Bouquet,  newly  arrived  from  European  battle-fields,  to 
lead  the   Royal   American  regiment   of   Pennsylvania 

•  Green's  Short  llutory  of  the  English  People,  ^  1451. 

100 


j^-J  J  64.. 


IJI.OCK  IIOUSI-:    OF    KOKT   DUQUKSNK 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    THE    0 11  U>    COUNTUY 

Germans;  and  George  AVasliington  with  the  Virginia 
backwoodsmen,  who  were  ever  ready  to  follow  him  into 
battle,  no  matter  how  reluctant  they  might  afterwards 
be  to  submit  to  discipline;  and  twelve  liundred  of  Mont- 
gomery's Highlanders,  clad  in  the  kilt  that  the  Indian 
deri(U?d  as  a  petticoat;  and  provincials  from  Maryland 
and  North  Carolina — all  determined  to  avenge  the  Brad- 
dock  disgrace. 

Exhausted  by  illness,  yet  steadfast  and  determined, 
the  persistent  Scotch  general  i)layed  by  turns  the  ])arts 
of  commander,  quartermaster,  and  commissary.  His 
very  delays  were  made  to  aid  his  plans,  by  detaching 
from  the  French  their  Indian  allies;  and  at  his  command 
the  ofovernor  of  Pennsvlvania  ne^i^otiated  with  the  Five 
Nations  and  their  allies  the  treaty  of  Easton,  with  the 
result  that  a  joint  message  of  peace  was  sent  to  the  sav- 
ages of  the  Ohio.  The  hazardous  mission  of  Frederick 
Post,  with  these  tidings  of  peace;  the  cruel  slaughter  of 
Major  Grant's  too  precipitate  advance;  and  the  dispute 
between  Washington  and  l>ouquet  as  to  whether  Brad- 
dock's  road  should  be  used  or  a  new  way  cut,  are  all 
incidents  of  the  terrible  November  march  of  the  reso- 
lute army.  From  his  swaying  litter  the  pain-tortured 
general  directed  the  movements  of  his  troops  as  they 
made  their  slow  way  down  the  bleak  slopes  of  the  moun- 
tains and  on  towards  the  mingling -place  of  the  Alle- 
ghany and  the  Monongahela,  only  to  find  a  few  harm- 
less Indians  prowling  amid  the  ruins  of  a  demolished 
fort.  Some  to  Venango  in  the  north,  some  to  P^ort 
Chartres  in  the  west,  the  enemy  had  dispers('d.  So  with- 
out a  blow  fell  Fort  Duquesne,  and  with  it  fell  tlie  power 
of  France  on  the  upper  Ohio.  About  the  few  remain- 
ing houses  Forbes  drew  a  line  of  palisades  as  a  defence 
against  the  Indians,  and  this  enclosure  he  named  Pitts- 

101 


TIIK    NOIITHWKST    U  N  I>  K  U    TIIKKH    TLACiS 

burg,  for  the  minister  in  whoso  service,  before  he  head 
reachcMl  two  score  and  ten  veiirs,  he  had  worn  out  his 
life.  Leaving  to  General  Stanwix,  who  came  a  year 
later,  the  task  of  building  Fort  Pitt,  Forbes  was  borne 
back  to  Phihidelphia  to  die. 

It  was  almost  eleven  months  after  the  successful 
Pennsylvania  campaign  that  Quebec  capitulated  ;  and  it 
was  not  until  September,  IT60,  that  Vaudreuil,  hemmed 
in  by  Amherst  and  Murray  and  Ilaviland,  yielded  up 
Montreal,  and  with  it  the  dominion  of  the  Northwest 
from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Mississippi.* 

Far  away  from  the  scene  of  hostilities  the  little  col- 
ony at  Detroit  stolidly  continued  in  its  accustomed 
ways,  regardless  of  coming  changes.  On  November  20, 
1760,  Major  Robert  Rogers  drew  up  his  two  companies 
of  ranofers  and  his  little  detachment  of  Roval  Americans, 
on  a  grassy  plain  under  the  guns  of  Fort  Pontchartrain, 
and  there  awaited  with  composure  the  reply  of  the 
French  commandant,  M.  Bellestre,  to  the  letter  of  the 
Marquis  Yaudreil,  commanding,  the  surrender  of  Detroit 
to  the  British.  Robert  Rogers,  the  leader  of  the  Eng- 
lish forces  on  this  delicate  mission,  was  the  most  famous 
Indian  fifjhter  of  his  da  v.  J^orn  in  the  Scotch-Irish  set- 
tlement  of  Londonderry,  New  Hampshire,  he  began  his 
career  as  a  scout  in  the  Merrimac  Yallev  when  he  was 

'  Parkman's  MontcahM  .  nd  Wolfe  treats  in  a  masterly  manner  of  the 
struggle  between  Fr.-i  co  and  England.  Chapter  X.  of  Green's  Sfwrt 
History  of  the  English  People  is  devoted  to  Pitt's  work,  Macaulay's 
essay  on  Lord  Chatham  treats  of  this  period  in  retrospect.  Thacke- 
ray's Virginians,  in  spite  of  some  small  inaccuracies,  gives  the  true 
historical  atmosphere  of  the  Braddock  expedition.  Among  the  recent 
successful  attempts  to  deal  with  the  fall  of  Quebec  are  Gilbert  Par- 
ker's Seat,'<  of  the  Mighty,  and  The  Span  0'  Life,  by  William  IMcLennau 
and  J,  N.  Mcllwraith.  In  Ttro  Soldiers  and  a  Politician  Clinton  Ross 
shows  how  the  long  story  of  Quel»ec  can  be  told  in  a  few  words. 

103 


FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH 

IN  '-O 

NORTH  AMERICA 
1755 


■30^ 

1            I' 

? 

«  Oriean-" 

^   0     F 

E 

X     1 

92  (■ 

1 

87 

Ix>n|ritinl 

C     n 


W.  -f 


h^}^^ 


eCAlt  Of  MILES 

100  ^ 


•"•roi'nwich         7J 


300 


TIIK    KNGLISII    IN    TlIK    OHIO    COUNTRY 

but  nineteen  years  old,  and  at  this  time  had  been  in  the 
kinir's  service  fourteen  years.  Taller  bv  three  or  four 
inches  than  the  average  of  his  fellow-townsmen  whom 
lie  led,  like  them  he  wore  a  close-litting  jacket,  a  warm 
cap, coarse  woollen  small-clothes,  legfi^inn:s,an(l  moccasins. 
A  hatchet  was  thrust  into  his  belt,  a  powder-horn  lnni«^^ 
at  his  side,  a  long,  keen  hunting-knife  and  a  trusty  mus- 
ket completed  his  armament ;  and  a  blanket  and  a  knap- 
sack stuffed  with  bread  and  raw  salt  pork,  together  with 
a  flask  of  spirits,  made  uj)  his  outfit,  lie  could  speak  to 
the  Iiidian  or  the  Frenchman  in  a  language  they  could 
understand  ;  he  knew  every  sign  of  the  forest,  every 
wile  of  his  foes,  and  repeatedly  his  bravery  and  coolness 
had  brought  him  safely  through  the  most  critical  situ- 
ations, lie  lifted  a  scalp  with  as  little  compunction  as 
did  anv  Indian,  and  counted  it  the  most  successful  war- 
fare  to  creep  into  an  Indian  encampment  by  night,  to  set 
fire  to  the  lodges,  and  to  make  his  escape  by  the  light 
of  the  flames,  with  the  screams  of  the  doomed  savages 
rejoicing  his  ears.' 

On  his  way  to  Detroit  Rogers  and  his  party  had  been 
stopped  at  a  place  near  the  present  site  of  Cleveland, 
by  an  embassy  from  the  Ottawa  chief  Pontiac,  who 
claimed  to  be  king  and  lord  of  the  countrv.'  When 
French  defeat  seemed  assured,  the  prudent  Pontiac  had 
gone  with  the  other  chiefs  from  the  Detroit  to  the  re- 
cently surrendered  Fort  Pitt"*  to  learn  how  the  Indians 
were  likelv  to  fare  under  Hritish  rule.  With  short- 
sighted  braggadocio,  assurance  was  given  him  by  the 
British  comman  lant  that  the  rivers  would  run  with 

'Joseph  B.  Walker's  sketch  of  Rogers,  Isew  Ilamiisihire  Historical 
and  Genealogical  Society  PahUratiom,  1885. 

'^JoxirnalH  of  Mnjor  Robert  Rogers,  London,  1765. 
3  James  Grant's  statement,  Gladwin  MM8. 

103 


tin:    XOIiTIIWKST    IJNhKK    TIIIiKK    KLACfS 

nun,  that  presents  from  the  parent  kin<,^  wouM  ])e  with- 
out limit,  and  that  tlie  markets  wouhl  he  the  cheapest 
ever  known.  Tliese  and  many  oilier  fair  promises  so 
reassured  Pontiae  that  he  spi'cad  rli(»  good  news  far  and 
wide  among  the  Indians,  and  when  Rogers  appeared 
the  chief  gave  him  a  most  hospitable  welcome,  and  even 
ollei'ed  to  escoit  him  on  his  journey,  llogers,  who  was 
himself  a  great  braggart,  confirmed  all  that  had  been 
said  at  Fort  Pitt;  and  night  after  night,  as  ranger  and 
Indian  sat  by  the  camp-fire  and  smoked  the  pipe  of 
peace,  the  former  told  his  inquisitive  red  brother  how 
the  English  maintained  discipline  in  their  forces  and 
handled  their  armies  to  the  best  advantage  in  battle; 
also  how  cloth  was  made,  and  iron  forged,  and  what 
multitudes  of  white  men  lived  in  great  cities  over  seas. 

Rogers  in  all  his  experience  had  never  before  met  so 
noble  a  son  of  the  forest,  and  he  easilv  came  to  under- 
stand  how  great  keenness  of  mind,  matched  by  majesty 
of  appearance,  contirmed  to  Pontiac  that  ascendency  over 
the  various  hdce  tribes  which,  by  right,  belonged  to  him 
as  the  chief  of  the  eldest  member  of  their  confederacy. 
Moreover,  the  shrewd  New  Englander  knew^  that  with 
Pontiac  and  the  Ottawas  on  his  side,  the  French  com- 
mandant must  speedily  yield.  M.  Bellestre,  however, 
made  his  ow^n  surrender  as  humiliating  for  himself  as 
j)()ssible.  On  hearing  of  the  approach  of  the  English  he 
set  on  tiie  flag-staff  of  the  fort  a  w^ooden  effigy  of  the 
Pritish  leader's  head,  on  w^hich  a  crow,  supposed  to 
represent  M.  Bellestre,  was  engaged  in  scratching  at 
the  brains  of  his  foe.  But  Pontiac's  Indians  had  made 
known  to  their  friends  at  the  fort  the  true  condition  of 
affairs,  and  when  the  P^rench  commandant  found  himself 
deserted  by  his  Indian  allies,  he  gave  the  reluctant  order 
to  lower  the  lilies  of  France,  which  for  more  than  half 

104 


TIIK    ENGLISH     IN    TlIK    OHIO    COUNTIiV 

a  century  had  floated  over  Fort  Poiilcliartrain.  As  the 
led  cross  of  8t.  (ieor^o  snapped  in  the  hrisk  Xoveniber 
breeze,  above  the  hoarse  cheei-s  ot*  ran^^ers  and  pr(>vin- 
cials,  came  the  joyous  yelps  of  the  licUh^  savji«res,  who 
pelted  with  jeers  their  former  friends,  whom  tlu'V  now 
took  to  be  cowards. 

The  entire  Northwest  had  indeed  passed  into  the  con- 
trol of  the  British;  but  the  inhabitants  by  no  menus 
changed  their  minds  when  they  changed  tiieir  ling.  In 
thought,  in  customs,  in  speech,  whatever  of  civilization 
there  was  in  the  country  was  French,  and  so  remained 
for  three-quarters  of  a  century. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  PONTIAC   WAR 

The  conquest  of  Canada  by  the  English  brought 
about  several  readjustments  within  the  newly  acquired 
territory.  The  army  headquarters  were  transferred  from 
Quebec  to  New  York,  whence  General  Jeffrey  Amherst 
exercised  mihtary  control  over  the  ])osts.  Under  him 
Colonel  Bouquet  at  Fort  Pitt  ranked  the  commandant 
at  Detroit;  but  the  latter  held  a  general  control  over 
the  upper  lake  posts  and  reported  directly  to  General 
Amherst.  Indian  affairs  were  in  charge  of  Sir  William 
Johnson,  whose  headquarters,  at  Johnson  Hall  in  the 
present  State  of  New"  York,  swarmed  with  Indian  re- 
tainers and  dei)endants,  as  well  as  with  his  own  half- 
breed  children.  Under  Sir  William^  \\v,  his  deputy, 
George  Croghan,  who  was  constantl  engaged  in  going 
from  tribe  to  tribe  in  his  efforts  to  keep  the  peace. 

Along  the  Atlantic  coast  an  American  population  of 
English  and  Dutch  descent  peopled  the  country.  Nom- 
inally colonists,  these  people  formed  practically  a  group 
of  independent  states,  awaiting  only  the  coming  of 
events  already  foreshadowed  lo  coalesce  into  a  new  na- 
tion. From  this  sturdy  civilization  the  Northwest  was 
completely  cut  off  by  the  Alleghanies,  a  barrier  not  to 
be  crossed  by  settlers  until  the  close  of  the  Revolution ; 
and  for  the  lake  region  not  until  long  after  that  date. 

As  under  the  French,  so  under  the  English,  the  North- 

106 


THE    ruXTIAC     WAR 

west  continued  to  be  held  by  garrisons  maintained  in  an 
Indian  country  for  the  protection  of  the  fur  trade.  The 
difficulties  of  the  situation  arose  from  the  fact  that  the 
Indians  (Usputed  the  rif^ht  of  the  French  to  dispose  of 
the  country  to  the  EngUsh  :  while  on  their  part,  the 
Engh'sh,  having  no  longer  t  %ar  the  French  power, 
took  less  and  less  ])ains  to  conciliate  the  Indians. 

Captain  Donald  Campbell,  as  he  settled  down  for  a 
long  winter  at  Detroit  in  1760,  was  not  ill  pleased  with 
his  situation.  The  fort  was  large  and  in  good  repair, 
with  two  bastions  towards  the  river  and  a  large,  strong 
bast  .»n  1  v.rds  the  L^le  au  Cochon  (Belle  Isle);  two 
six-pouip  "  ,  nd  three  mortars  made  up  the  battery. 
Within  ui:^  1\.^^''  palisades  some  seventy  or  eighty  houses 
lined  the  narrow  streets.  The  fertile  countrv  alonfj 
both  banks  of  the  river  was  cut  into  narrow  farms  front- 
in^r  on  the  water  and  extendino^  back  into  the  endless 
forest.  The  Indians  livino^  in  the  vicinitv  of  the  fort,  as 
well  as  the  settlers,  looked  to  the  commandant  for  both 
justice '  and  supplies.  The  soldiers  were  contented,  a 
f  ,jt  which  the  captain  ascribed  to  the  absence  of  rum  ; 
and  the  Indians  were  seemingly  friendly,  although  the 
supplies  issued  to  them  were  meagre  in  extreme.  The 
social  life  at  Detroit  especially  pleased  the  gray-haired 
bachelor  commandant.  The  women  surpassed  his  ex- 
pectations ;  and  the  men,  although  very  independent, 
werp  3ver  rea  '\"  for  pleasure.     The  Sunday  card-parties 

'  Gladwin  MSS.,  p.  674.  Warrant  issueil  by  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst 
to  Major  Henry  Gladwin,  for  the  trial  and  execution  of  the  sentences 
in  the  case  of  two  Panis  (Pawnee)  slaves  for  the  murder  of  John  Clap- 
ham.  The  original  warrant  was  in  my  possession.  The  Gladicin 
MSS.,  now  in  possession  of  the  Rov.  Hein- ,  Gladwin  Jebb,of  Firbeck 
Hall,  Rotherham,  England,  are  given  in  the  Michigan  Pioneer  and 
Hiatorical  Gollecfionit,  vol.  xxvii. 

107 


TJIE    NUUTllWEST    UNDER   THREE    FLAGS 

at  the  commandant's  quarters,  attended  bj^  both  sexes, 
gave  to  life  at  Detroit  a  zest  not  known  at  Fort  Pitt; 
and  at  a  ball,  given  in  honor  of  the  king's  birthday,  the 
array  of  ladies  was  so  fine  as  to  call  forth  Captain 
Campbell's  hearty  commendations,  in  one  of  his  numer- 
ous gossipy  letters  to  Colonel  Bouquet."  ^loreover,  both 
the  French  and  the  Indians  were  as  fond  of  the  pleasure- 
loving  captain  as  their  fickle  natures  would  allow. 

During  the  summer,  however,  emissaries  from  the 
Six  Nations  came  to  Detroit  with  large  belts,  for  the 
purpose  of  stirring  up  a  general  warfare  against  the 
English.  Matters  became  so  serious  that  Sir  Jeffrey 
Amdierst  thought  best  to  send  Sir  William  fFohnson  to 
make  a  treaty  at  Detroit,  and  to  despatch  Major  Glad- 
win with  three  hundred  lig-ht  infantry  to  streno^then  the 
western  posts.  On  their  arrival  in  September,  Sir  Will- 
iam stated  his  conviction  that  the  conspiracy  against 
the  English  was  universal;  but  this  opinion  was  not 
shared  bv  General  Amherst.  The  latter  thouf^ht  the 
Indians  incapable  of  doing  serious  harm,  but  ordered, 
by  way  of  precaution,  that  they  be  kept  short  of  powder. 

The  visit  of  Sir  William  Johnson  was  the  greatest  so- 
cial event  that  the  people  of  Detroit  had  ever  known. 
Captain  Campbell  was  in  his  element.  On  Sunday 
evening  he  gave  a  ball  to  which  he  incited  twenty  of 
the  French  maidens  of  the  settlement.  The  dance  be- 
o^an  at  eiofht  o'clock  in  the  even i no:  and  lasted  until  five 
next  morning.  It  was  opened  by  Sir  William  and  Made- 
moiselle Cuillerier,  the  daughter  of  the  principal  French 
trader ;  and  her  black  eyes  made  such  a  lasting  im- 

'  The  correspondence  covering  his  period  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Bouquet  Papers,  printed,  in  so  far  as  tl)*^y  relate  to  the  Northwest, 
in  the  MicJiif/iin  Pioneer  and  Historical  CollectiouH,  vol.  xix.  See  also 
Canadian  Archives  for  1889,  and  Stone's  Lift  of  Sir  William  Johnson. 

108 


THE    PONTIAC    WAR 

pression  on  the  gallant  Indian  agent  that  the  exehange 
of  compliments  between  them  appears  in  the  correspond- 
ence foi'  scv^eral  years,  the  last  mention  beintx  found  in 
a  letter  from  James  Sterling,  who,  on  behalf  of  his  wife, 
returns  hearty  thanks  for  Sir  William's  civilities  to  her 
four  years  previous.  Before  leaving  Detroit,  Sir  AVilliam 
also  gave  a  ball,  and  on  this  occasion  the  dancing  con- 
tinued for  eleven  hours.  There  was  also  a  round  of 
dinners  and  calls,  at  which  wines  and  cordials  w^ere 
served  without  stint ;  presents  were  shov^ered  upon  tlie 
Indians,  and  after  the  final  council  all  the  principal  in- 
habitants dined  with  the  diplomat  of  the  forest. 

In  all  these  festivities  Major  Gladwin  had  no  part. 
Lying  in  a  little  house,  within  hearing  of  the  lively  tid- 
dle  and  the  laughter  of  the  dancers,  the  fever  of  the 
country  racked  his  bones  and  made  him  loiMi:  for  his 
Derbyshire  home.  At  evenino-  Sir  William  would  visit 
him  to  talk  over  the  events  of  the  day  and  plan  for  the 
future  ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  October  that 
Gladwin  was  able  to  leave  for  Fort  William  Augustus 
on  his  way  to  England. 

In  July,  1702,  the  Indians  learned  with  satisfaction 
tliat  England  was  at  war  with  Spain,  and  soon  the  re- 
port spi'ead  far  and  wide  that  the  French  and  Spanish 
were  to  retake  Quebec  and  all  Canada.  Here  at  last 
was  the  chance  for  which  the  savao^es  had  been  waitino-. 
With  the  help  of  the  French  they  could  drive  out  the 
English,  and  once  more  receive  solicitous  attention  from 
both  nations.  At  this  juncture  Major  Gladwin  again 
appeared  at  Detroit,  this  time  with  orders  to  establish 
posts  on  Lake  Superior  and  to  exercise  general  super- 
vision over  the  northwestern  establishments.  Cap- 
tain Campbell,  although  now  somewhat  wearied  by 
the  sameness  of  garrison  pleasures,  remained  as  second 

109 


TIIH    NOUTilWEST    UNDER    T  11 U  K  E    ILAG.^ 

in  commjind  ;  and  tlie  favor  in  which  lie  was  held  by 
both  the  French  and  the  Indians  was  a  decided  help  to 
the  adroit  and  business-like  (rladwiii.  For  company 
the  officers  liad  Sir  Kobert  Da  vers,  an  Englishman  of 
education  and  adventurous  disposition,  who  had  been 
exploring  the  Lake  Superior  country  ' 

As  spring  came  and  the  February  thaws  and  March 
rains  loosened  the  ice  bonds  that  for  three  long  months 
had  locked  Detroit  from  the  world,  Gladwin  at  evening 
must  often  have  stood  on  the  platform  within  the  pali- 
sade to  look  out  on  the  tumultuous  river,  where  the 
great  ice  cakes  from  Lake  Ste.  Claire,  tumbling  over 
each  other  like  marine  monsters  at  play,  were  hui'rying 
down  to  the  warmer  waters  of  Lake  Erie.  \>y  day  the 
details  of  administration  kept  him  busy.  The  French 
merchants  within  the  fort  grumbled  at  the  increased 
taxes  imp(>sed  for  the  support  of  a  garrison  much  larger 
than  their  own  king  had  maintained  ;  the  outlying  posts 
were  continually  sending  for  supplies  ;  General  Amherst 
was  cautioned  against  gifts  of  ammunition  and  rum  to 
the  Indians  ;  and  the  savages,  having  bartered  their  furs 
for  licpior  at  Niagara,  had  no  means  of  obtaining  the 
necessaries  of  life  from  the  traders  at  Detroit.  Some 
of  the  French  and  Indians  complained  that  Gladwin 
called  them  dogs,  and  drove  them  from  his  house;  and 
the  subsequent  career  of  those  persons  who  made  the 
charges  shows  that  the  commandant  was  an  excellent 
judge  of  human  nature." 

'All  contemporary  accounts  agree  in  speaking  of  "Sir "Robert 
Da  vers ;  but  there  was  no  such  person  in  the  baronetage  of  England, 
Roberi  Davcrs,  an  ekier  son  of  Sir  Richard  Davers,  was  living  at  tliia 
time,  but  died  before  coming  into  the  title.  The  famil}'  lias  since 
become  extinct. 

'■^  Gladwin  MSS.,  p.  643.  Pierre  Barthe  claimed  that  Gladwin's  ill- 
treatment  of  the  French  and  Indians  brought  on  the  war. 

110 


GENERAL   TIEM{Y  GLADWTN 

(From  a  i>li(itn^iuitli  ui  a  paintiiiji  by  Julm  Ilolhmd) 


THK    PONTIAC    WAU 

Confident  of  the  power  of  En^^land  to  hold  all  she  had 
gained  from  France,  Gladwin  had  no  suspicions  that  the 
Indians  would  foolishlv  rush  to  their  own  destruction 
by  an  attack  on  the  British  posts.  Living  behind  pali- 
sades, and  surrounded  by  a  cordon  of  discontented  and 
intriti:uin<i:  French,  Gladwin  could  have  no  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  mischief  that  for  months  had  been 
plotted  by  the  Ottawa  chief,' Pontiac,  who  had  estab- 
lished himself,  with  his  wives,  on  the  narrow^  Isle  a  hi 
Feche,  rising  above  the  w^aters  of  Lake  Ste.  Claire  and 
concealed  from  the  view  of  the  fort  by  the  thickly 
wooded  Isle  au  Cochon.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  Pontiac  had  impressed  himself  upon  Gladwin  as 
being  in  any  w^ay  distinguished  above  the  other  chiefs, 
and  doubtless  many  of  the  reports — like  those  of  Rogers 
— of  the  Ottawa's  striking  personality  are  too  highly 
col'^'ed.  The  fact  remains,  how^ever,  that  now,  at  the 
age  of  fifty,  Pontiac  was  in  the  full  vigor  of  his  power 
over  the  surrounding  tribes,  and  that,  during  his  connec- 
tion with  the  w^hites,  his  keen  intelligence  had  absorbed 
valuable  militarv  knowledfje.  Accordino'  to  his  own 
account,  he  had  saved  the  French  at  Detroit  from  mas- 
sacre in  1746,  when  the  great  chief  Mickinac  (the  Turtle) 
came  with  his  northern  bands  "  to  carry  off  the  head  of 
the  French  commander  and  eat  his  heart  and  drink  his 
blood.''  Doubtless,  too,  he  had  led  the  Ottawas  at 
Little  Meadows  in  1755,  w4ien  Gladwin  for  the  first  time 
heard  the  Indian  w^ar-whoop.  At  a  great  council  of  April, 
1763,  held  on  the  banks  of  the  River  Ecorses,  below 
Detroit,  Pontiac  had  related  to  the  superstitious  Indians 
a  dream  wherein  the  Great  Spirit  sent  his  message  that 
they  were  to  cast  aside  the  weapons,  the  manufactures, 
and  the  rum  of  the  wiiite  men,  and,  with  help  from 
above,  drive  the  dogs  in  red  from  every  post  in  their 

111 


Tin:    NolJTIIWHST    LNDKli    TIIUKh:    K  F.  A  f  i  S 

coiuitrv.  The  superstitious  Indians  lieunl  with  awe  the 
voice  from  on  high,  and  left  the  council  prepared  to 
obey  the  summons.' 

Detroit  being  the  cliief  point  of  attack,  Pontiac  took 
upon  himself  the  plan  for  surprising  and  massacring  that 
garrison.  On  May  1st,  forty  Ottawas  danced  the  cmIu- 
met  dance  before  Gladwin's  house.  This  visit  was  for 
the  ])urp<)se  of  spying  out  the  land.  Four  days  later,  M. 
Gouin,  a  substantial  French  settler,  brought  word  that 
his  wife,  while  visiting  the  Ottawa  camp  to  buy  venison, 
had  seen  the  Indians  filin^:  olf  the  ends  of  their  min- 
barrels,  evidently  pre|)aring  for  some  deed  of  treachery. 
On  the  evening  of  the  (Uh  Gladwin  receiv^ed  private  in- 
formation that  the  next  day  had  been  set  for  the  destruc- 
tion  of  his  garrison.  The  exact  source  of  this  private 
information  is  still  a  matter  of  some  doubt.  Lieutenant 
McDougall,  who  doubtless  knew  the  secret,  li'ives  no  hint 
in  his  report.  It  is  not  impossible  tiiat  Mademoiselle 
Cuilierier,  whose  father  and  brother  unquestionably 
knew^  of  the  conspiracy,  put  Major  Gladwin  on  his 
guard,  and  that  James  Sterling,  who  afterwards  became 
her  husband,  was  w^ell  rewarded  bv  the  British  for  the 
timely  warning.'     The  reward  which  Sterling  received, 

'  For  a  full  report  of  this  conference,  see  Parkm;in's  Conspiracy  of 
Pontiac.  Mr.  Pjukoian  has  written  the  history  of  Pouliac's conspiracy. 
Those  who  come  after  him  can  but  make  such  corrections  in  his  story 
as  new  information  requires.  Thus  he  was  clearly  wrong  in  spelling 
the  name  "  Gladwyn  ";  and  he  was  unfamiliar  with  Gladwin's  ante- 
cedents. He  wM'ote  from  Pontiac's  standpoint:  as  I  have  attempted  to 
write  from  Gladwin's. 

-'  Mr.  C.  M.  Burton,  who  propounds  this  theory,  relies  on  this  pas- 
sage in  a  letter  from  Major  Henry  Basset  to  Halditnand,  dated  at 
Detroit,  August  29.  1773,  ten  years  after  the  siege  :  "I  beg  to  recom- 
mend Mr.  James  Sterling,  who  is  the  first  Mercht.  at  this  place  &  a 
gentleman,  of  good  character,  during  the  late  war.  through  a  Lady, 
that  lie  then  courted,  from  whom  he  had  the  best  information,  was  ia 

112 


TIIK    rONTIAC    WAR 

lioweveiMniglit  well  hiive  been  given  because  he  became 
the  leader  of  the  French  citizens  when  they  at  hist  deter- 
mined to  support  Gladwin.  Carver,  who  visited  Detroit 
five  years  after  the  events  to  be  described,  and  who  ])ub- 
lished  three  editions  of  his  Travdn  through  North  Amer- 
ica whik'  Ghidwin  was  still  living,  relates  without  con- 
temporary contradiction,  a  story  that  General  Lewis  Cass 
accepted  with  little  hesitation  and  that  Parkman  clings 
to  in  spite  of  the  doubts  thrown  upon  it  by  investigations 
he  himself  made  subsequent  to  the  first  edition  of  his 
Conspiracy  of  Pontiac. 

The  evening  of  May  7th,  accoi'ding  to  Carver,'  an  Ind- 
ian gii'l  who  had  been  employed  by  Major  Gladwin  to 
make  him  a  pair  of  moccasins  out  of  curious  elk-skin, 
brought  her  work  home.  The  Major  was  so  pleased 
with  the  moccasins  that,  intending  them  as  a  present 
to  a  friend,  he  ordered  her  to  take  back  the  remainder 
of  the  skin  to  make  a  pair  for  him.  Having  been  paid 
and  dismissed,  the  woman  loitered  at  tlie  door.  Glad- 
win was  quick  enough  to  see  that  something  was  amiss. 
Beino^  uriJ:ed  to  tell  her  trouble,  she  said,  after  much 
hesitation,  that  as  he  had  alwavs  behaved  with  much 
goodness  to  her,  she  was  unwilling  to  take  away  the 
remainder  of  the  skin,  because  he  put  so  great  a  value 
upon  it  and  she  should  never  be  able  to  bring  it  back. 
His  curiosity  being  now  excited,  be  insisted  that  she 
disclose  the  secret  that  seemed  to  be  struggling  in  her 
bosom  for  utterance.  At  last,  on  receiving  a  promise 
that  the  intellifjence  she  was  about  to  o-ive  him  should 
not  turn  to  her  prejudice,  and  that  if  it  appeared  to  be 

part  the  means  to  save  this  gr.  Tison."— J//cA.  P.  and  H.  Col.,  vol.  xix., 
p.  311. 

'  Carver  is  clearly  wrong  in  his  date.     MacDouald  gives  May  6tb, 
Friday,  as  the  day  of  the  disclosure. 
H  113 


TIIK    NoKTIIWKST    UXOKK    TIIKKK    FLAiiS 

l)eneiicial  she  should  lie  nnvarded  for  it,  she  int'oi'mod 
him  thnt  at  the  council  to  be  held  with  tin*  Indians  the 
followin*;- day,  lN)nliac  and  his  chiefs  intended  to  murder 
him;  and,  Mftei'  liaviui^-  massacred  the  garrison  and  in- 
habitants, to  plunder  the;  town.  Gladwin  then  dismissed 
her  with  injunctions  to  secrecy  and  »  promise  of  reward. 
A  story  at  once  so  romantic  atw  o  wiiUdy  accepted 
deserves  tender  treatment;  but  in  the  Parkman  manu- 
scripts this  same  tale  is  found  in  the  mouth  of  one  of 
Rogers's  soldiers,  who,  as  C'ass  ])roves,  could  not  have 
known  the  facts.  The  truth  probably  has  been  related 
bv  the  author  of  the  Pontiac  Diarv.     This  writer  savs 

•'  C  4. 

that  an  Ottawa  Indian  called  ^[ahigan,  who  had  entered 
but  reluctantly  into  the  conspiracy,  and  who  felt  dis- 
pleased with  the  steps  his  people  were  taking,  came  on 
Friday  night,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  other  Ind- 
ians, to  the  gate  of  the  fort  and  asked  to  be  admitted 
to  the  presence  of  the  commander,  saying  that  he  had 
something  of  importance  to  tell  him.  "^he  gates  having 
been  opened,  he  was  conducted  to  Captain  Campbell, 
second  in  command,  who  sent  for  Gladwin.  They 
wished  to  call  in  the  interpreter,  Labutte,  but  the  Indian 
objected,  saying  that  he  ..Jd  make  himself  understood 
in  French.  He  unfolded  the  conspiracy  of  the  Indians 
and  told  how  they  would  fall  on  the  English  next  day 
Having  obtained  a  pledge  of  secrecy,  and  having  refused 
presents  lest  the  Indians  should  discover  his  treachery 
and  kill  him,  he  left  the  fort  secretly.  The  writer  adds 
that  Gladwin  made  a  promise  not  to  disclose  the  source 
of  bis  information,  and  that  he  kept  it.' 

^  The  Pontiac  Diarj',  Avrittcn  in  French,  was  found  in  the  roof  of  u 
Canadian  house  that  was  being  torn  down.  Three  translations  exist : 
one  in  manuscript  is  among  the  Parkman  MSS.  in  the  Library  of  tlie 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society  ;  another  is  to  be  found  in  School 

114 


7 


TIIK    I'OXTIAC     W  A  U 


Tln'  crisis  iwid  coinp  in  tin*  litV  <»t'  thr  voiiml:  <"oiii- 
niandant  of  His  M;iiestv's  toiros  at  Detroit.  Altlioiiixh 
lio  cn\\U\  not  then  luivo  known  tin'  extent  of  the  wido- 
s])i'('ii(l  conspiracy  which  l*onliac  had  phmncMl,  yet  he 
(hd  know  that  his  steadfastness  and  his  knowledge  of 
Indian  warfare  were  about  to  be  put  to  the  test,  (ihid- 
win  was  a  soldier  by  choice  and  by  training,  and  the 
seven  years  he  had  spent  in  Kngland's  service  on  tlie 
frontiers  had  not  been  without  itshai'd  lessons.  In  ITr).") 
he  had  landed  on  tiie  banks  of  the  I^otoniacas  a  lieuten- 
ant in  the  ill-fat^'d  Hi'addock  expedition.  He  was  one 
of  that  band  of  glittering  otUcers  whom  the  provincial 
soldier,  George  Washington,  had  envied  as  they  congre- 
gated in  the  old  liraddock  Uouse  at  Alexandria,  whose 
now  bare  but  statelv  staircase  and  bn/id  halls  seem  still 
to  be  peopled  by  the  ghosts  of  fair  ladies  and  dashing 
soldier  gallants  of  a  century  and  a  (juarter  ago.  In  the 
ambush  of  Little  Meadows,  Gladwin  had  learned  from 
the  brave  yet  cautious  young  A'irginian  that  the  military 
science  of  the  old  worhl  was  out  of  place  in  battling  with 
the  denizens  of  the  American  forests ;  and  in  the  cjim- 
paigns  against  Ticonderoga  and  Niagara  this  new  knowl- 
edge had  stood  him  in  t^food  stead.  Scarcely  more  than 
a  year  previous  he  had  given  a  hostage  to  fortune  by 

craft's  s«,-C()nd  volume  ;  and  the  other  in  vol.  viii.  Michir/dti  Pioneer 
Collections.  The  original  has  been  lost  through  tiie  carelessness  of 
persons  connected  with  tlie  old  Michigan  Historical  Society  ;  and  the 
loss  is  a  serious  one.  The  authorship  of  this  diary  is  not  known  def- 
initely. I  believe,  however,  that  it  is  a  portion  of  the  voluminous 
records  of  Father  de  la  Hichardie,  of  the  .Tesuit  mission  at  Sandwicli ; 
and  that  the  pages  were  torn  from  his  books  and  secreted  when  tlie 
English  were  endeavoring  to  obtain  evidence  of  the  complicity  of  the 
French  in  the  conspiracy.  At  least  the  style  is  his  ;  and  the  records 
for  1762  and  1763  are  wanting  in  his  manuscripts  now  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Mr.  Richard  H.  Elliott,  of  Detroit. 

115 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

leading  to  the  altar  of  the  little  Wingerwort  church  in 
Derbyshire  a  beautiful  girl  of  nineteen,  from  whose  side 
military  duties  in  America  too  quickly  recnlled  him. 
As  the  prospective  head  of  an  old  and  honorable  county 
family,  yet  with  little  besides  his  profession  of  arms  to 
give  him  support  and  reputation,  Henry  Gladwin,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-three,  must  have  I'ealized  that  the  peril 
which  now  faced  the  king's  supremacy  was  for  him  the 
door  to  success  or  to  failure  in  life,  according  as  he 
should  succeed  or  fail  to  hold  the  post  of  Detroit  against 
the  savages  whose  hostility  and  crafty  treachery  threat- 
ened it.  And  yet,  perhaps  the  warning  of  danger  to 
come  might  be  without  foundation,  as  so  many  other 
warnings  had  proved  to  be.  Perhaps  the  prudent,  if 
fickle,  Indians  were  bent  merely  on  extorting  more  pres- 
ents and  a  larger  portion  of  rum.  Perhaps  the  serene 
river  was  a  pathway  of  pt.ice  and  not  of  war;  perhaps 
the  stillness  of  the  trackless  forest  was  not  destined  to 
be  broken  by  the  warwhoop  and  the  death-cry.  Yet  if 
it  was  to  be  war  he  would  be  found  neither  unprepared 
nor  wanting  in  the  determination  that  marks  the  soldier. 
In  either  event,  the  morrow  would  tell  the  storv. 

About  ten  o'clock  the  next  morning,  as  Carver^  re- 
lates, Pontiac  and  his  chiefs  arrived,  and  were  conducted 
to  the  council  chamber,  where  Glatiwin  and  his  princij)al 
officers  awaited  their  coming.  As  the  Indians  passed  on 
they  could  not  help  obser^  ing  a  greater  number  of  troops 
than  usual  drawn  upon  the  parade.     No  sooner  had  the 

'  Jonatban  Carver  was  born  in  Connecticut,  and  when  a  youth  en- 
tered the  British  army,  reaching  the  rank  of  captain.  He  was  the 
first  to  use  the  name  Oregon,  and  his  explorations  towards  tlie  source 
of  the  Mississippi  opened  that  region  to  the  world.  For  details  of  his 
life  see  Dr.  John  Coakley's  edition  of  Carver's  Travels,  published  in 
London  in  1781,  the  year  after  Carver's  death.  See  also  Winsor's 
Westward  Movement  for  port'-ait  and  maps. 

116 


MKS.   IlKMtY    GI.ADWIN 

(From  a  painting  attributed  to  Romuey) 


TUK    PONT  I  AC    WAR 

Indians  entered  the  council-chamber  and  seated  them- 
selves on  the  skins  prepaied  for  them  than  Pontlac  asked 
the  commandant  uhv  his  vounii:  men,  meanin^:  the  sol- 
diers,  were  thus  drawn  up,  and  parading  the  streets. 
"  To  keep  them  perfect  in  their  exercise/'  was  the  an- 
swer. 

Then  Pontiac  began  to  protest  his  friendship  and  good- 
will towards  the  English  ;  and  when  he  came  to  deliver 
the  belt  of  wampum,  which,  according  to  the  warning, 
was  to  be  the  signal  for  his  chiefs  to  fire,  ''  the  governor 
and  all  his  attendants  drew  their  swords  half-way  from 
their  scabbards ;  and  the  soldiers  at  the  same  instant 
made  a  clattering  with  their  arms  before  the  doors, 
wiiich  had  been  purposely  left  open.  Even  Poniiac 
trembled,  and  instead  of  giving  the  belt  in  the  manner 
proposed,  delivered  it  according  to  the  usual  way.  His 
stolid  chiefs,  who  had  expected  the  signal,  continued 
quiet,  awaiting  the  result." 

Gladwin,  in  his  turn,  made  a  speech.  Instead  of 
thanking  Pontiac  for  the  professions  of  friendship  just 
uttered,  he  accused  him  of  being  a  traitor.  He  said  that 
the  English,  who  knew  everything,  were  convinced  of 
Pontiac's  treachery  and  villanous  designs.  Then,  reach- 
ing down  to  the  Indian  chief  seated  nearest  him,  he  drew 
aside  his  blanket,  discovering  the  shortened  firelock. 
This  entirely  disconcerted  the  Indians.  Inasmuch  as  he 
had  given  his  word  at  the  time  they  desired  an  audience 
that  their  persons  should  be  safe,  Gladwin  said  he  would 
hold  his  promise  inviolable,  though  they  so  little  deserved 
it.  However,  he  advised  them  to  make  the  best  of  their 
way  out  of  the  fort,  iest  his  young  men,  on  being  ac- 
quainted with  their  treacherous  purposes,  should  cut 
every  one  of  them  to  pieces.  Pontiac  endeavored  to  con- 
tradict the  accusation,  and  to  make  excuses  for  his  sus- 

117 


TIIK    XOUTIIWEST    rXDKK    TIIIIKK    FLAGS 

picious  conduct ;  but  Gladwin  refused  to  listen,  and  the 
Indians  sullenly  left  the  fort. 

Late  that  afternoon  six  warriors  returned,  bringing 
with  them  an  old  squaw,  saying  that  she  had  given  false 
information.  Gladwin  declared  that  she  had  never  given 
anv  kind  of  advice.'  AV^hen  thev  insisted  that  he  name 
the  author  of  what  he  had  heard  in  regard  to  a  plot,  he 
simply  replied  that  it  was  one  of  themselves,  whose  nauie 
he  promised  never  to  reveal.  Whereupon,  they  went  off 
and  carried  the  old  woman  with  them.  When  thev  ar- 
rived  in  camp,  Pontiac  seized  the  prisoner  and  gave  her 
three  strokes  with  a  stick  on  the  head,  which  laid  her 
Hat  on.  the  ground,  and  the  whole  nation  assembled 
around  her,  and  called,  "Kill  her  I  kill  her  I" 

The  next  dav  was  Sundav,  and  late  in  the  afternoon 
Pontiac  and  sevenil  of  his  chiefs  ])addled  across  the 
placid  river  to  smoke  the  pipe  of  peace  with  the  officers 
of  the  fort.  Gladwin,  suspicious  of  so  much  protestation, 
refused  to  go  near  them;  but  Captain  Campbell,  un- 
willing to  lose  a  chance  to  pacify  the  Indians,  smoked  the 
peace-pipe  with  them  outside  the  fort,  and  took  back  to 
Gladwin  the  message  that  next  day  all  the  nation  would 
come  to  council,  where  everything  would  be  settled  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  English,  after  which  the  Indians 
w^ould  immediately  disperse,  so  as  to  remove  all  suspicion. 

At  ten  o'clock  next  morning  the  anxious  watchers  be- 
hind the  palisades  saw  a  fleet  of  canoes  coming  around 
the  lower  point  of  the  long  island,  and  as  the  swift-dart- 
ing boats,  hurried  by  paddle  and  current,  covered  the 
three  miles  of  water  the  soldiers  counted  fiftv-six  of 
these  barks,  each  carrying  seven  or  eight  Indians.     The 


'  Rogers's  Journal.     Doubtless  this  is  the  origin  of  the  romance  of 
the  Indian  girl. 

118 


TIIK    rONTlAC    WAK 

bows  of  the  canoes  rested  li^^htlv  on  the  sand  of  the 
sloping  bank,  and  the  warriors  made  their  way  to  the 
lort  only  to  find  the  gates  fast  barred  against  them.  In- 
stead of  the  cordial  welcome  they  expected,  an  inter- 
preter met  them  with  the  message  that  not  above  sixty 
chiefs  might  enter.  Whereupon  I^ontiac,  enraged  at 
seeing  the  futility  of  all  his  stratagems,  and  yet  con- 
fident of  ultimate  success,  in  his  most  perer'ptory  man- 
ner bade  the  interpreter  say  to  Gladwin  that  if  all  the 
Indians  had  not  free  access  to  the  fort,  none  of  them 
would  enter  it.  "Tell  him,''  said  the  angry  chief,  '*that 
he  may  stay  in  his  fort,  and  that  I  will  keep  the  coun- 
try." Then  Pontiac  strode  to  his  canoe,  and  paddled  for 
the  Ottawa  village.  His  followers,  knowing  that  the 
tiij:lit  was  on,  ran  like  fiends  to  the  house  of  an  En<>:lish- 
woman  and  her  two  sons,  whom  thev  tomahawked  and 
scalped.  Another  party  paddled  swiftly  to  Isle  au 
Cochon,  where  thev  first  killed  twentv-four  of  Kino: 
George's  bullocks,  and  then  put  to  death  an  old  English 
serofeant.  Afterwards,  the  Canadians  buried  the  muti- 
lated  corpse ;  but  on  returning  to  the  spot,  so  tradition 
relates,  they  were  surprised  to  see  an  arm  protruding 
from  the  grave.  Thrice  the  dirt  was  heaped  above  the 
body,  and  thrice  the  arm  raised  itself  above  the  ground, 
until  the  mound  \vas  sprinkled  with  holy  water;  then 
the  perturbed  spirit  left  the  bod}^  in  peace,  never  since 
disturbed.  Having  put  to  death  all  the  English  outside 
the  fort,  the  Indians  sent  to  Gladwin  a  Frenchman  to 
report  both  the  killing  of  the  woman  and  her  children, 
and  also  the  murder  of  Sir  Robert  Davers,  Captain 
Robertson,  and  a  boat's  crew  of  six  persons,'  who  had 
been  sent  to  the  St.  Clair  flats  to  discover  a  passage  for 

'  8ee  Clairmont's  testimony,  Gladwin  MSS.,  p.  663. 

119 


TIIH     XOUTIIWKST    UNDEU    TllKEK    TLAiiS 

one  of  tlie  schooners  bound  to  Mic-liiliniackinac.  This 
information  removed  all  lint^erin^  doubts  that  the 
Indians  were  determined  to  wipe  out  the  English  at 
Detroit. 

On  his  return  to  the  Ottawa  village,  Pontiac  ordered 
the  stjuaws  to  change  the  camp  to  the  western  bank, 
above  the  fort.  As  the  night  mists  gathered  upon  the 
tireless  river,  dro])ping  a  curtain  between  the  great  chief 
and  his  enemies,  Pontiac  himself,  hideous  in  war  paint, 
leaped  into  the  centre  of  the  ring  of  braves,  and  Nour- 
ishing his  tomahawk,  began  to  chant  the  record  of  his 
valorous  deeds.  One  by  one  the  listening  braves,  catch- 
ing the  contagion  from  their  mighty  chief,  were  drawn 
into  the  ring,  until  at  last  every  savage  was  wildly 
dancing  the  war -dance.  There  vras  no  sleep  for  the 
garrison  that  night.  Gladwin,  as  he  paced  the  wide 
street  that  encircled  the  buildings  of  the  fort  just  with- 
in the  pickets,  took  counsel  with  himself  as  to  how  he 
might  withstand  his  crafty  enemies.  Burning  arrows, 
silent  messengers  of  destruction,  might  easily  set  tire  to 
the  fourscore  or  more  wooden  buildings  within  the  en- 
closure ;  and  the  church,  standing  near  the  palisades, 
was  particularly  exposed,  unless,  indeed,  the  supersti- 
tious Indians  should  hearken  to  their  only  less  super- 
stitious French  allies,  who  had  threatened  the  savages 
with  the  vengeance  of  the  Great  Spirit  if  they  should 
attempt  to  destroy  the  house  of  God.  The  two  six- 
pounders,  the  three-pounder,  and  the  mortars  composing 
the  battery  of  the  fort  were  of  little  avail  against  an 
enemy  that  fought  singly  and  from  behind  trees  or 
whatever  })rotection  the  opportunities  might  afford ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  an  English  head  above  the  pickets 
or  an  English  body  at  a  port-hole  was  the  sure  lodgement 

for  an  Indian  bullet.     The  garrison  was  made  up  of  one 

120 


S^)il^' 


.5(''iW(i\  ['  -^ 


ANOTUEK   PAUTY    I'ADDLLD   SJWIFTLV    TO   Tllfc:    ISLE   AU   COCIIONS 


TIM-:    I'oNTIAr    WAR 

hundivd  and  twenty-two  soldiers  and  eif^lit  otlicers,  to- 
f^otlicr  witli  al)oiit  tortv  fur-traders  and  their  assistants. 
These  traders  woukl  fi«^ht  to  save  their  lives,  hut  were 
inclined  to  the  French  rather  than  to  the  English.  Be- 
tween this  little  garrison  and  the  thousand  savages  was 
a  single  row  of  palisades  made  by  planting  logs  close 
together  so  that  thev  would  stand  twentv-five  feet 
ahove  gn^und.  IJlock-houses  at  the  angles  and  at  the 
gates  alforded  additional  protection ;  and,  best  of  all, 
the  brimming  river,  whose  little  waves  lapped  the  sandy 
shore  near  the  south  line  of  palisades,  gave  an  abundant 
water-supply.  A  schooner  and  a  sloop,'  both  armed, 
might  be  relied  on  to  keep  open  the  line  of  communica- 
tion with  Niagara,  whence  Major  Walters  would  send 
supplies.  Promotion  would  be  the  reward  of  success ; 
the  torture-stake  the  penalty  of  failure. 

The  chill  that  comes  before  dau^n  was  in  the  air  when 
Gladwin  joined  the  anxious  watchers  in  the  block-house. 
The  placid  river  seemed  a  great  mirror  reflecting  the 
brighter  stars.  Gradual Iv  the  black  outlines  of  low 
farm-houses  and  encircling  woods  melted  into  gray ;  and 
then  bevond  the  wooded  island  a  disk  of  molten  gold, 
pushing  itself  higher  and  higher,  made  of  the  deep 
waters  a  broad  pathway  of  shimmering  light.  On  the 
low  bluff  far  up  the  river,  Gladwin's  anxious  eye  discov- 
ered the  lodges  of  Pontiac's  Ottawas,  who,  under  the 
cover  of  the  night,  had  paddled  around  the  head  of  the 
island  and  noiselessly  established  themselves  above  the 
line  of  French  farm-houses.  This  meant  a  siege  ;  and  as 
the  commandant  was  still  gazing  at  the  preparations  for 

'  These  vessels  were  built  in  1761  on  an  island  in  the  Niagara.  The 
schooner  when  loaded  dren-  seven  feet  of  water  ;  she  carried  six  guns, 
and  the  sloop  carried  ten.  Tiie  schooner  was  named  The  Gladwin, 
and  survived  until  about  1778.     She  was  lost  for  want  of  ballast. 

121 


TlIK    NORTinVEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

war,  a  pattering  of  bullets  against  the  block -Louse  an- 
nounced the  beorinninof  of  hostilities. 

During  the  morning  a  party  of  Wyanilottes,  sum- 
moned by  Pontiac  to  a  council,  sco))ped  at  the  fort  on 
their  way.  Fortified  bv  Enfjlish  rum,  thev^  went  otf  to 
the  meeting-place  under  promise  to  Gladwin  that  they 
would  do  all  they  could  to  appease  the  Ottawas  and  dis- 
suade them  from  further  hostilities.  Next  came  a  num- 
ber of  the  French  settlers,  bringing  with  them  chiefs  of 
the  Ottawas,  Wyandottes,  Chippewas,  and  Pottawato- 
mies,  who  told  Gladwin  that  almost  all  the  French  had 
gathered  at  the  house  of  the  trader  M.  Cuillerier,"  where 
the  Indians  were  to  hold  their  council.  They  assured 
Gladwin  that  if  he  would  allow  Captain  Campbell  and 
another  officer  to  go  to  the  council,  it  would  not  be  hard 
to  persuade  the  Indians  to  make  peace.  At  any  rate,  it 
could  do  no  harm  to  trv^ ;  for  both  the  French  and  the 
Indians  promised  to  see  that  the  popular  old  ca])tain  and 
his  companion  returned  in  safety  that  very  night.  Glad- 
win, having  little  hope  of  turning  Pontiac  from  his  pur- 
poses, was  reluctant  to  intrust  Captain  Campbell  to  their 
hands ;  but  the  captain,  relying  on  the  friendship  that 
had  existed  between  him  and  the  savages,  no  less  than  on 
the  promises  of  the  French,  urged  to  be  allowed  to  go  to 
the  council.  The  decidino-  influence  which  brouo^ht  Glad- 
win  to  consent  was  the  absolute  necessity  of  getting  into 
the  fort  a  supply  of  corn,  flour,  and  bear's  grease  ;  for 

'  The  Cuillerier  family  disappeared  througli  the  marriage  of  John 
Cuillerier  to  Mary  Trotier  de  Beaubien.  n(;r  children  by  her  first 
marriage  called  themselves  Cuillerier  dit  Beaubien,  and  finally  the 
Cuillerier  was  dropped,  leaving  the  still  well-known  name  of  Beaubien. 
Mary  Beaubien  married  for  her  second  husband  Francois  Picote  de 
Belestre  (or  Bel^tre),  which  may  account  for  Pontiac's  choice  of  M. 
Cuillerier  as  commandant  ad  interim.  See  Barton's  Cadillac's  Vil- 
lage, p.  42. 

122 


THE    rONTlAC    WAR 

the  garrison  had  in  store  not  more  than  enough  for  three 
weeks.  So,  while  Captain  Campbell  and  Lieutenant 
McDougall  went  off  with  high  hopes,  the  prudent  com- 
mandant, under  cover  of  the  darkness,  set  about  gather- 
ing provisions  from  the  French  settlers  across  the  river. 
Scarce!  V  had  the  em  bass  v  of  ])eace  crossed  the  cleared 
space  about  the  fort  than  they  were  met  by  M.  Gouin, 
^vho  first  urged  and  then  begged  them  not  to  trust  their 
lives  in  the  keeping  of  the  now  excited  Indians.  The 
appeal  was  vain.  Yet  even  while  the  party  were  making 
their  way  along  the  bank  of  the  river,  they  were  set 
upon  by  a  crowd  of  Indians,  at  whose  hands  they  would 
have  fared  ill  indeed  had  not  Pontiac  himself  come  to 
the  rescue.  On  reachirg  the  appointed  place  of  meeting, 
they  found  the  largest  room  filled  with  French  and  Ind- 
ians. In  the  centre  of  the  group  sat  M.  Cuillerier, 
arrayed  in  a  hat  and  coat  adorned  with  gold  lace.'  lie 
kept  his  seat  when  the  two  officers  entered  and  remained 
covered  during  the  conference.  When  bread  was  passed, 
he  ate  one  piece  to  show  the  Indians,  as  he  said,  that  it 
was  not  poisoned.  Pontiac,  addressing  himself  to  M. 
Cuillerier,  craftily  said  that  he  looked  upon  the  French- 
man as  his  father  come  to  life,  and  as  the  commandant 
at  Detroit  until  the  arrival  of  M.  Beletre,  the  former 
French  commandant.  Then  Pontiac,  turning  to  the 
British  officers,  told  them  plainly  that  to  secure  peace, 
the  English  must  leave  the  country  under  escort  and 
without  arms  or  baggage.  Thereupon  M.  Cuillerier 
warmly  shook  Lieutenant  McDougail's  hand,  saying, 
"My  friend,  this  is  m\^  work;  rejoice  that  I  have  obtained 
such  good  terms  for  you.  I  thought  Pontiac  would  be 
much  harder."     Hoping  against  hope  for  the  garrison, 

*  Gladwin  MS8.    Testimony  of  Mr.  Rutherford,  p.  638  et  seq. 

123 


Till!:  noktii\vp:st  under  tiikke  flags 

but  apprehensive  of  no  present  danger  to  himself  and 
his  brother  officer,  Captain  Campbell  made  a  short  but 
earnest  plea  for  peace.  Then  he  and  Lieutenant  Mc- 
Dougall  waited  anxiously  for  the  usual  grunt  of  appi'oval. 
The  moments  dragged,  and  still  the  Indians  sat  impassive. 
For  the  space  of  an  hour  there  was  unbroken  silence. 
Then  Captain  Campbell,  dejected  by  evident  failure, 
arose  to  retrace  his  steps  to  the  fort.  "My  father,'' 
said  Pontiac,  quietly,  "  will  sleep  to-night  in  the  lodges 
of  his  red  children." 

The  unusual  intelligence  that  had  raised  Pontiac  above 
ever}^  other  Indian  chief,  had  led  the  English  to  rely  on 
his  sense  of  honor,  a  quality  rare  indeed  among  savages. 
What  civilized  races  call  treachery  is  to  the  Indian  legit- 
imate warfare.  It  never  occurs  to  a  savage  to  expose 
himself  to  harm  in  order  to  accomplish  an  end  that  he 
can  attain  safely  by  deception.  In  spite  of  all  promises, 
therefore,  the  two  Englishmen  were  sent  under  strong 
guard  to  the  house  of  M.  Meloche.  That  they  were  not 
immediately  put  to  death  was  due  solely  to  the  fact 
that  Gladwin  held  several  Pottawatomie  prisoners,  and 
Pontiac  shrewdly  enough  feared  that  if  the  comman- 
dant should  retaliate  on  his  hostages,  that  tribe  would 
vanish  into  the  forest,  leaving  him  without  the  support 
he  so  much  needed. 

Captain  Campbell  and  Lieutenant  McDougall  trusted 
to  the  promises  of  the  French  more  than  to  those  of 
the  Indians.  It  has  been  assumed  that  the  French 
at  Detroit  were  the  victims  of  the  Pontiac  conspiracy 
only  to  a  less  degree  than  were  the  English.  It  is 
true  that  there  were  a  few  prudent  FrencTi  farmers 
who  gave  to  Gladwin  what  assistance  they  coald  give 
without  drawing  down  on  themselves  the  enmity  of  the 
Indians ;  but  it  was  generally  believed  among  the  French 


c 

k.*- 


THE    PONTIAC    WAR 

that  the  English  would  soon  be  driven  out  of  New 
France,  and  that  the  French  king  wouhl  again  be  their 
monarch.  For  two  centuries  the  warfare  between  French 
and  English  over  the  fur-trade  had  been  as  barbarous  as 
war  was  in  Europe  during  the  same  time;  human  life 
on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic  was  not  considered  worth 
a  king's  serious  consideration ;  and  the  soldier  of  that 
day  in  every  nation  was  a  freebootei*.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  French  traders  and  wood -rangers  at 
Detroit  should  have  seized  upon  Pontiac's  war  to  de- 
spoil their  ancient  enemies  and  their  conquerors  of  less 
than  three  years'  standing.  The  only  cause  for  surprise 
is  that  the  French  did  not  from  the  start  openly  make 
common  cause  with  Pontiac.  That  they  secretly  gav^e 
aid  and  encouragement  to  the  Indians  was  repeatedly 
charged  by  Gladwin.  The  convincing  proof  of  his  as- 
sertions is  to  be  found  in  the  official  reports  of  inquiries 
he  caused  to  be  held  at  Lotr  >it  during  the  siege,  reports 
which  after  more  than  a  century  and  a  quarter  of  ob- 
livion, have  been  found  and  made  available  by  one  of 
Gladwin's  descendants.'  The  problem  for  Gladwin  was 
to  hold  out  at  Detroit  until  both  the  French  and  Ind- 
ians could  be  convinced  that  the  French  Government 
would  not  assist  them  and  that  the  peace  with  England 
was  definite  and  lasting. 

The  terms  proposed  to  Captain  Campbell  were  offered 
next  day  to  Gladwin,  and  the  French  urged  him  to  es- 
cape while  he  might;  but  the  3'oung  Englishman  abso- 

*  Oladtoin  MSS.,  Jadoc's  testimony,  p.  656.  It  appears  that  the 
heads  of  the  French  families  were  unwilling  to  place  their  wives, 
children,  and  possessions  in  jeopardy;  but  were  ready  enough  to  sacri- 
fice the  three  hundred  young  men  "who  had  neither  parents,  nor 
much  property  to  lose."  "  The  villany  of  the  settlement  in  general, 
to  write  it,  would  fiM  a  volume." 

125 


THE     NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

lutelv  refused  to  make  any  terms  with  savages.  His 
soldiers  caut^ht  liis  sj)irit,  so  that  lie  was  ahle  to  write 
conrKh3ntly  to  General  Ainhiii'st,  that  he  wouhl  hold  out 
until  succor  should  come.  The  schooner  Glcdmn^  whicli 
bore  tlie  despatch,  eluded  Pontiac's canoes;  and  when  the 
chief  reported  his  failure  to  M.  Cuillerier,  the  French- 
man jeered  at  him  because  live  canoes  withdrew  at  the 
death  of  a  single  Pottawatomie.' 

Xow  l)eo^an  a  ion<i:  series  of  disasters  to  the  Ensrlish. 
One  by  one  the  results  of  Pontiac's  plotting  transpired. 
Everything  seemed  to  be  giving  way  before  the  exult- 
ing savages.  On  ]\[ay  22d  news  came  of  the  capture  of 
Fort  Sandusky.''  At  the  inquiry  Ensign  Paully  related 
that  on  May  10th  his  sentry  called  him  to  speak  with 
some  Indians  at  the  gate.  Finding  several  of  his  own 
Indians  in  the  party,  he  allowed  seven  to  enter  the  fort 
and  gave  them  tobacco.  Soon  one  of  the  seven  raised 
his  head  as  a  signal,  whereupon  thet\  a  sitting  next  the 
officer  seized  and  bound  him  and  hurried  him  from  the 
room.  He  passed  his  sentry  dead  in  the  gateway,  and 
saw  lying  about  the  corpses  of  his  little  garrison.  His 
sergeant  was  killed  in  the  garden  where  he  had  been 
planting;  the  merchants  were  dead  and  their  stores  were 
plundered.  The  Indians  spared  Paully  and  took  him 
to  their  camp  at  Detroit,  where  he  was  adopted  as  the 
husband  of  a  widowed  squaw,  from  whose  toils  he  finally 
escaped  to  his  friends  in  the  fort. 

On  May  ISth,  Ensign  Holmes,  who  commanded  the 
garrison  at  Fort  Aliami,  on  the  Maumee,  was  told  by  a 
Frenchman  that  Detroit  had  been  attacked,  whereupon 
the  ensign  called  in  his  men  and  set  them  at  work  mak- 
ing  cartridges.     Three  days  later  Holmes's  Indian  ser- 

>  Gladwin  MSS.,  p.  641.  2  /^^y;    p  q^Q. 

126 


THE    POXTIAC    WAR 

vant  V)os()Uii'ht  liiin  to  bleed  oneof  liin*  friends  wlio  lav  ill 
in  a  cabin  outside  the  stockade.  ( )n  iiis  errand  of  mercy 
he  was  shot  dead.  The  terrified  f^arrison  of  nine  were 
only  too  glad  to  surrender  at  the  command  of  two 
Frenchmen,  Pont'ac's  messengers,  who  were  on  their 
way  to  the  Illinois  to  get  a  commandnni  for  Detroit.' 
On  May  25th,  at  Fort  St.  Joseph,  seventeen  Pottawat- 
omies  came  into  Ensign  Schlosser's  room  on  the  pre- 
tence if  holding  a  council.  A  Frenchman  who  had 
heard  that  treachery  was  planned,  rushed  in  to  give  the 
alarm,  whereu])on  Ensign  Schlosser  was  seized,  ten  of 
the  garrison  were  killed,  and  the  other  three  with  the 
commandant  were  made  prisoners.  They  were  after- 
wards brought  to  Detroit  and  exchano^ed.'' 

On  the  20th  the  long  expected  bateaux  from  Niagara 
were  seen  coming  up  the  river.  With  joyful  hearts  the 
(garrison  looked  forward  to  the  end  of  their  tedious  sieore. 
But  as  the  boats  came  nearer,  the  English  saw  with  dis- 
may that  Indians  were  the  masters  of  the  craft.  When 
the  foremost  bateaux  came  opposite  the  schooner,  two 
soldiers  in  her  made  the  motion  to  change  rowing  places. 
Quickly  they  seized  the  Indians  and  threw  tlietn  over- 
board. One  Indian  carried  his  assailant  with  him  and 
in  the  struo^o^le  both  found  death.  Another  soldier 
struck  the  remaining  Indian  over  the  head  with  an  oar 
and  killed  him.  Under  the  fire  of  sixty  savages  on  the 
shore  the  three  plucky  Englishmen  esca])ed  to  the  vessel 
with  their  prize,  which  contained  eight  barrels  of  most 
acceptable  pork  and  flour.  Of  the  ten  bateaux  that  had 
set  out  from  Niagara  under  Lieutenant  Cuyler,  eight 
had  been  captured  and  the  force  had  been  completely 

*  Gladwin  MSS.,  Testimony  of  James  Beems,  p.  637.    The  French- 
men were  Godfroy  and  Chene. 
'  Ibid.,  Testimony  of  Ensign  Schlosser,  p.  636. 

127 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

routed  by  an  Indian  surprise  and  night  attack  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Detroit.' 

Following  the  capture  of  the  bateaux  came  the  dark- 
est davs  of  the  sie«re.  Often  durintj:  a  whole  <lav  the 
Indians,  drunken  on  the  rum  from  the  captured  stores, 
did  not  fire  a  shot,  but  in  their  fiendish  glee  they  gave 
notice  of  their  presence  by  sending  the  scalped  and 
mangle('  bodies  of  English  captives  to  float  past  the 
palisades  in  sight  of  tlit  sentries. 

To  add  to  these  tales  of  disaster  came  Father  La  Jau- 
nay,  missionary  at  Michilimackinac/  to  tell  the  bloodiest 
story  of  all.  On  June  2d,  the  Chippewas  living  near 
the  fort  assembled  for  their  Uaual  game  of  ball.  They 
played  from  morning  till  noon,  and  Captain  George 
Etherington  and  Lieutenant  Leslie  stood  by  to  watch 
the  sport.  Suddenly  the  ball  was  struck  over  the  pali- 
sades. A  dozen  Inc^i'ins  rushed  through  the  gate  to  get 
it.  Before  the  dazed  sentry  could  recover,  the  captain 
and  lieutenant  were  seized  and  hurried  oif ;  the  Indians 
within  the  fort  had  received  from  the  squaws  stationed 
there  hatchets  hidden  under  their  blankets;  in  an  in- 
stant Lieutenant  Jamet,  fifteen  soldiers,  and  a  trader 
named  Tracy  were  put  to  death,  five  others  were  re- 
served for  a  like  fate,  and  the  remainder  of  the  garrison 
were  made  prisoners.     Had  it  not  been  for  the  powerful 

^  Bouquet  Papers,  Canadian  Archives,  1889,  p.  227.  Cuyler  him- 
self escaped  lo  Presque  Isle,  Surgeon  Cope  and  fifteen  men  were  killed. 
On  .June  20th,  as  he  was  returning  to  Detroit  from  Niagara,  Cuyler 
witnessed  the  destruction  of  Presque  Isle,  but  being  ten  miles  out  in 
the  lake  could  give  no  assistance.     See  Gladwin  MSS.,  pp.  637,  638. 

^  In  1712,  Father  Marest  built  a  church  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Straits  of  Mackinac  near  the  present  site  of  Mackinac  City,  and  two 
years  later  Louvigny  built  a  fort  there.  Thereafter  the  name  Michili- 
mackinac,  which  had  been  applied  to  the  region,  was  confined  to  the 
settlement  and  the  island. 

128 


THE    PONT  I  AC    WAR 

influence  of  Charles  Langlade'  and  his  friends  the  Otta- 
was,  all  the  English  must  have  perished;  as  it  was,  Cap- 
tain Etherington  and  Lieutenant  Leslie,  with  fourteen 
men.  wore  held  until  Julv  ISth,  and  were  then  taken  to 
Montreal  bv"  the  Citpv/as." 

On  Sunday,  the  2>ch  of  June,  Pontiac,  for  mingled 
purposes  of  religion  and  business,  paddled  across  the 
Detroit  river  to  attend  mass  m  the  little  French  chapel. 
When  the  services  were  over,  the  chief  selected  three 
of  the  chairs  in  which  the  thriftv  x""rencli  had  been  car- 
ried  to  cliurch,  and  making  the  ownei3  his  ch.iirmen, 
he  and  his  guard  set  off  on  a  search  for  provisions,  lie 
imitated  the  credit  certificates  issued  by  Gladw"  i  and 
gave  in  payment  for  cattle  billets  signed  by  \v  lark, 
the  picture  of  a  coon.  The  provisions  were  tra  ^  led 
to  Pontiac's  camp  near  Parent's  Creek,  and  in  due  time 
the  billets  were  redeemed.  The  next  day  Pontiac  sent 
another  summons  to  surrender,  saying  that  nine  hun- 
dred Indians  were  on  their  way  from  Michilimackinac, 
and  if  Gladwin  waited  till  those  Indians  arrived  he 
would  not  be  answerable  for  the  consequences.  Glad- 
win replied  that  until  Captain  Campbell  and  Lieutenant 

'  Oladwin  MSS.  Etherington  to  Gladwin,  p.  631.  Mrs.  Cather- 
wood'a  story,  The  White  Islander,  relates  the  experience  of  Alexander 
Henry,  who  was  one  of  the  survivors  of  the  massacre.  Henry's  own 
published  narrative  forms  the  basis  for  the  story  and  for  Parkmau's 
chapter. 

^  Etherington  had  warned  the  little  garrison  at  La  Bay  (Green  Bay); 
Lieutenant  Gorrell  and  his  men  were  brought  as  prisoners  to  Michili- 
mackinac, and  were  sent  to  Montreal  with  Etherington  and  Leslie. 
The  garrison  at  Ouatanon  (Lafayette),  on  the  Wabash,  was  to  have 
been  massacred  on  June  1st;  but  the  French  persuaded  the  Indians  to 
make  prisoners  of  Lieutenant  Jenkins  and  his  men  and  to  send  them 
to  the  Illinois.  See  Gladwin  ^fSS.,  Letters  from  Etherington  and 
Jenkins  to  Gladwin,  pp.  638,  639.  Le  BcKuf,  Venango,  Carlisle,  and 
Bedford  were  cut  off  on  June  18th. 
I  139 


THE    NOKTllWEST   UNDER    TllUEE    FLAGS 

McDout^all  were  returned,  Pontiac  might  save  himself 
the  trouble  of  sending  messages  to  the  fort.  To  this  the 
wily  Pontiac  made  answer  that  he  had  too  much  regard 
for  his  distinguislied  captives  to  send  them  back;  be- 
cause the  kettle  was  on  the  lire  for  the  entire  garrison, 
and  in  case  they  were  returned  he  should  have  to  boil 
them  with  the  rest. 

On  the  oOtli  of  June,  the  Gladtuln^  returning  from 
Niagara,  plouglied  her  way  up  the  white-capped  river  and 
landed  a  force  of  fifty  men,  together  with  provisions 
and  some  much  needed  ammunition.  For  two  months 
Gladwin  had  guarded  Detroit  against  surprise  and  had 
sustained  a  siege  conducted  by  Pontiac  in  person,  while 
fort  after  fort  had  fallen  before  the  savages.  As  the  Ind- 
ians returned  from  their  successes  elsewhere  they  were 
more  and  more  eager  for  the  overthrow  of  the  one  fort 
that  hitherto  had  baffled  all  their  efforts.  In  his  ex- 
tremity Pontiac  now  turned  on  the  French  and  threat- 
ened to  force  them  to  take  up  arms  against  the  English. 
During  the  siege,  however,  copies  of  the  definitive  treaty 
between  France  and  England  had  reached  Detroit;  and, 
on  July  4th,  Gladwin  assembled  the  French,  read  to 
them  the  articles  of  peace,  and  sent  a  copy  across  the 
river  to  the  priest.  Thereupon  forty  Frenchmen,  choos- 
ing: James  Sterlinor  as  their  leader,  took  service  under 
Gladwin.  On  this  same  day  a  party  from  the  fort  made 
a  sortie  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  in  some  powder  and 
lead  from  the  house  of  M.  Baby,  who  had  taken  refuge 
in  the  fort.  Lieutenant  Ilay,  an  old  Indian -fighter, 
commanded  the  force,  and  in  his  exultation  over  driving 
off  an  attacking  party,  he  tore  the  scalp  from  the  head 
of  a  wounded  Indian  and  shook  his  trophy  in  the  face  of 
his  enemies.  It  happened  that  the  one  of  the  savages 
killed  was  the  son  of  a  Chippewa  chief;  and  as  soon  as 

130 


THE    rONTlAC    WAli 

the  tribe  heard  of  their  disaster  thev  went  to  Pontiac  to 
reproach  him  for  being  tlie  cause  of  their  ills,  saying 
that  he  was  very  brave  in  taking  a  loaf  of  bread  or  a 
beef  from  a  Frenchman  who  made  no  resistance*,  but  it 
was  the  Ciiippewas  wiio  had  all  the  men  killed  and 
wounded  every  cUiy.  Therefore,  they  said,  they  in- 
tended to  take  from  liim  what  he  had  been  saving. 
Lieutenant  McDougall  liad  already  made  his  escape  to 
the  fort ;  but  thev  v;ent  to  Meloche's  house,  where  the 
brave  old  Captain  Campbell  was  still  contined.  Tliey 
stripped  him,  carried  him  to  their  camp,  killed  him,  took 
out  his  heart  and  ate  it,  cut  off  his  head,  and  divided  his 
body  into  small  pieces.  Such  was  the  end  a  brave  sol- 
dier, esteemed,  loved,  and  sincerely  mourned  in  the  army, 
from  General  Andierst  and  Colonel  Boucjuet  down  to 
the  privates  who  served  under  him. 

At  raidnifi:ht  on  Julv  10th  the  sentries  in  the  fort  saw 
floating  down  the  b^  .k  river  a  great  mass  of  fire.  The 
flames,  feeding  on  fagots  and  birch  -  bark,  leaped  liigh 
in  the  air,  lighting  up  the  f<M'est-covered  island  in  the 
backgi'ound  and  brint>in^*  into  hif^h  relief  the  white- 
washed  cottatj^es  that  lined  the  shore.  Hurried  bv  the 
swift  current,  a  great  fire-raft,  built  by  the  French '  and 
Indians,  made  for  the  two  vessels  anchored  in  the 
stream ;  but  the  alert  crews  had  anticipated  their  dan- 
ger and  were  pi'epared  for  it.  The  vessels  were  anchore<l 
by  two  cables,  and  as  the  flaming  pile  approached,  they 
slipped  one  cable  and  easily  swung  out  of  the  way  of 
the  eneniv. 

The  hot  days  succeeded  one  another  all  too  slowly. 
On  the  29th  of  July  the  guards  heard  firing  down  the 
river,  and  half  an  hour  later  the  surprised  sentries  saw 

'  QladicinMSS.,  p.  647. 
131 


THE    XOKTIIWKST    UXDKR    TMKKK    ILAGS 

the  broad  surface  of  the  river  dotted  with  bateaux,  the 
regular  dip  of  whoso  oars  was  l)orno  a  lon<,^  way  on  tlio 
still  morning  air.  A  detachment  of  two  hundre<l  and 
sixty  nien  under  llie  command  of  Captain  Dalyell,  one 
of  (ienerai  Amiirrst's  aides  de-camp,  liad  coum  to  put 
an  end  to  the  siege.  Captain  Dalyell  was  an  otiicer  of 
undoubted  bravery,  and  the  tales  of  slaught<»r  he  had 
heard  at  Presque  Isle  and  S-.ndusky  on  his  way  to  De- 
troit made  him  anxious  to  crush  Pontiac  by  one  bold 
stroke.  Gladwin,  whom  months  of  close  acquaintance 
with  the  wary  Indian  chief  had  taught  discretion,  gave 
consent  to  DalyelFs  plan  of  a  night  attack,  oidy  on  the 
threat  of  the  latter  to  leave  Deti-oit  unless  such  a  blow 
should  be  struck.'  The  treacherous  French,  learningr 
the  details  of  the  plan,  immediately  put  Pontiac  on  his 
guard."  In  the  earliest  hours  of  the  31st  of  July,  Dal- 
yell marched  a  force  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  along 
the  sandy  bank  of  the  swift- flowing  river,  passed  the 
well -enclosed  cottages  of  the  French  and  on  towards 
Parent's  creek,  a  little  stream  that  fell  into  the  river 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  above  the  fort. 

The  twenty-live  men  in  advance  had  just  stepped  on 
the  rude  bridge  across  the  run,  when  from  the  ridges 

'  Gladwin  aud  McDonald  agree  that  the  night  attack  was  stren- 
uously opposed  by  the  former.  There  is  a  tradition  (Fred.  Carlisle  re- 
lates it  as  a  fact,  in  his  report  to  the  Wnyne  County  Historical  Society 
for  1890)  that  Dalyell  and  Gladwin  both  sought  the  hand  of  Made- 
leine (le  Tonnancour,  and  that  when  she  favored  the  aide-de-camp, 
Gladwin  willingly  sent  him  to  his  death.  Inasmuch  as  Gladwin  was 
happily  married  during  the  previous  year,  this  atory  is  simply  another 
illustration  of  the  fables  that  have  gained  currency  in  connection  with 
the  Pontiac  conspiracy. 

*  Bart,  the  gunsmith,  went  through  the  Ottawa  village  shouting 
"  Down  with  your  huts  !  Down  with  your  huts  !  Send  your  squaws 
aud  children  to  the  woods  !" — Gladwin  MSS.,  p.  646. 

133 


A  LKJIFT-INFANTHY  ><)I DIKU    OF    TIIK   I'KKloD 


THE    PONTIAC    \V\R 

that  formed  the  farther  side  of  the  gully  came  a  volley 
of  musketry  that  hurled  the  little  band  in  confusion 
back  on  the  main  body.  In  the  pitchy  darkness,  cheered 
on  by  DalyelPs  steady  words  of  command,  the  British 
swept  the  ridges  only  to  find  themselves  chasing  those 
deadly  will-o'-the-wisps,  the  flashes  of  an  enemy's  guns. 
To  fall  back  was  absolutely  necessary ;  but  here  again 
the  soldiers  were  met  by  the  rapid  firing  of  the  Indians 
who  had  occupied  the  houses  and  orchards  between  the 
English  and  the  fort.  Every  charge  of  the  soldiers  only 
enveloped  the  pursuers  in  a  maze  of  buildings,  trees,  and 
fences,  while  the  Indians  beat  a  nimble  retreat,  firing 
from  behind  any  shelter  they  could  find.  From  an  open 
cellar  the  concealed  savages  pou*'^d  a  deadly  fire  into 
the  British  ranks;  but  still  Dalyell  was  undismayed. 
Where  commands  were  of  no  effect,  he  beat  the  men 
with  the  flat  cf  his  sword.     Captain  liobert  Kogers,' 

^  After  receiving  the  surrender  of  Detroit,  Rogers  had  been  with 
Colonel  Grant  in  South  Carolina,  fighting  the  Cherokees.  He  now 
had  twenty  Rangers  in  his  party.  Two  years  before  he  had  married 
the  daughter  of  Rev.  Arthur  Brown,  rector  of  St.  John's  Church, 
Portsmouth,  New  Pfampshire,  and  after  leaving  Detroit  he  received 
a  grant  of  land  in  Rumford,  now  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  where 
the  Rogers  House  was  still  standing  in  1885.  He  was  in  London  in 
1765,  and  there  published  his  Journals  and  his  Concise  Account  of  North 
America;  possibly,  too,  he  was  the  author  of  Ponteach ;  or  tlie  Savages 
of  America  ;  a  tragedy  printed  in  1766  by  Rogers's  publisher,  J.  Mil- 
Ian,  of  London,  In  1766  General  Gage  sent  Rogers  to  Michilimackinac, 
where  he  plotted  to  turn  the  post  over  to  the  French,  out  of  revenge 
for  the  steps  taken  by  government  to  curb  his  extravagance  and  stop 
his  illicit  trade.  In  1770  he  appeared  again  in  London,  was  presented 
at  court,  had  his  accounts  settled,  but  failed  to  obtain  the  baronetcy 
he  demanded.  He  tried  to  obtain  a  command  in  the  American  army, 
but  Washington  would  have  nothin'^  to  do  with  him.  On  October 
21,  1776,  as  lieutenant-colonel  of  a  British  regiment,  he  was  defeated 
by  the  Americans  at  Mamaroneck,  New  York.  His  wife  secured  a 
divorce  by  act  of  the  New  Hampshire  Legislature,  in  1778,  and  he 

133 


THE    NORTHWEST    UxXDEU   TllKEE    FLAGS 

trained  in  frontier  warfare,  burst  open  the  door  of  a  cot- 
tage filled  with  Indians,  and  with  his  Rangers  put  the 
ambushed  savages  to  flight.  Ca})tain  Gray  fell  mortally 
woundcMl  iu  a  charge.  Dalyell  himself,  twice  wounded, 
went  to  the  succor  of  a  helpless  sergeant,  when  he  too 
fell  dead,  and  the  Indians  smeared  their  faces  with  his 
heart's  blood.  Major  Rogers,  who  succeeded  to  the 
command,  took  possession  of  the  well-built  Campau 
house,  where  his  soldiers,  fortified  without  by  solid 
logs  and  bales  of  furs,  and  strengthened  within  by 
copious  draughts  from  a  keg  of  whiskey,  held  the  en- 
emy at  bay  until  communication  could  be  had  with 
the  fort.  Two  bateaux  armed  with  swivels  soon  came 
to  the  rescue  of  Rogers,  who  had  been  besieged  by 
about  two  hundred  Indians.  The  remainder  of  the 
force  under  Captain  Grant  beat  an  orderly  retreat.  Of 
the  two  hundred  and  fiftv  who  went  out,  one  hundred 
and  fifty-nine  were  killed  or  wounded,  while  the  Indian 
loss  did  not  exceed  t  went  v. 

This  victory  of  Bloody  Run,  as  Parent's  Creek  was 
ever  afterwards  called,  restored  the  waning  fortunes  of 
Pontiac,  and  every  day  brought  accessions  to  his  forces. 
Yet  never  since  the  siege  began  was  Major  Gladwin 
more  hopeful  of  ultimate  success.  So  the  heats  of  Au- 
gust passed  with  an  occasional  skirmish,  and  September 
began.  The  Indians,  powerless  against  the  palisades, 
again  turned  their  attention  to  the  vessels  that  kept 
open  the  food  communication  with  the  settlers  across 
the  river  and  made  occasional  trips  to  Fort  Niagara  for 
supplies  and  ammunition.  From  one  of  these  latter 
voyages  the  schooner   Gladwin  was  returning  on  the 

died  in  obscurity  iu  London,  about  1800.  Dr.  F.  B.  Hough's  edition 
of  Rogers's  Journals  (Albany,  1883),  and  J.  B.  Wallver's  sketch,  before 
adverted  to,  are  the  best  authorities. 

134 


THE    PONTIAC    WAR 

night  of  September  4th,  when,  the  wind  failing,  she 
anchored  nine  miles  below  the  fort,  having  on  board 
her  commander,  Ilorst,  her  mate,  Jacobs,  and  a  crew  of 
ten  men.  Six  Iroquois,  supposed  to  be  friendly  to  the 
English,  had  been  landed  that  morning,  and  to  their 
brethren  was  probably  due  the  night  attack  made  by  a 
large  force  of  Indians,  whose  light  canoes  dropped  so 
silently  down  the  dark  river  that  a  single  cannon -sliot 
and  one  volley  of  musketry  were  all  the  welcome  that 
could  be  given  them.  Horst  fell  in  the  first  onslaught, 
and  Jacobs,  seeing  that  all  hope  was  gone,  gave  the 
command  to  blow  up  the  vessel.  At  the  word  some 
Wyandottes,  who  knew  the  meaning  of  the  command, 
gave  warning  to  their  companio'is,  and  all  made  a  dash 
overboard,  swimming  for  dear  life  to  be  clear  of  the 
dreaded  destruction.  Jacobs,  no  less  astonished  than 
gratified  at  the  eifect  of  his  words,  had  no  further 
trouble  that  night,  and  the  next  morning  he  sailed 
away  to  the  fort.  Six  of  the  sailors  escaped  unhurt  to 
wear  the  medals  presented  to  them  for  bravery. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  siege  Pontiac '  had  relied 
on  help  from  the  French  in  the  Illinois  country,  to  whom 
he  had  sent  an  appeal  for  aid.  '*  Since  our  father,  Mr. 
Beletre,  departed,"  he  said,  "  the  Indians  had  no  news, 
nor  did  any  letters  come  to  the  French,  but  the  English 
alone  received  letters.     The  English  say  incessantly  that 

'  There  is  evidence  that  LeDucSt.  Corne  Le  Due  and  other  French 
agitators  sprr^ad  abroad  the  report  that  the  French  were  in  the  St.  Law- 
rence ready  to  drive  out  the  English,  and  that  Pontiac,  in  common 
with  the  Indians  and  French  traders,  relied  on  these  reports.— See 
Gladicin  MSS.,  p.  653,  testimony  of  John  Seger.  The  Delawares  and 
Shawanese  also  did  their  utmost  to  stir  up  strife.  In  fact,  there  was 
no  Indian  trouble  in  the  Northwest  for  more  than  half  a  century  in 
which  the  Shawanese  were  not  the  instigators. — See  Gladwin  MSS., 
pp.  644,  671. 

135 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE     FLA(;S 

since  the  French  and  Spaniards  have  been  overthrown, 
they  own  all  the  country.  When  our  father,  Mr.  Be- 
letre,  was  going  off  from  hence,  he  told  us,  '  My  children, 
the  English  to-day  overthrow  your  father;  as  long  as 
they  have  the  upper  hand  ye  will  not  have  viiat  ye 
stand  in  need  of;  but  this  will  not  last.'  We  pray  our 
father  at  the  Hlinois  to  take  pity  on  us  and  say,  *  These 
poor  children  are  willing  to  raise  me  up.'  AVhy  do  we 
that  which  we  are  doing  to-day  ?  It  is  because  we  are 
unwilling  that  the  English  should  possess  these  lands; 
this  is  what  causeth  thy  children  to  rise  up  and  strike 
everywhere." 

This  message  was  indorsed  by  the  Chippewas  and  by 
the  French  inhabitants  at  Detroit,  the  latter  com])lain- 
ing  that  they  were  obliged  to  submit  to  Indian  exactions. 
M.  JS^eyeon,  the  French  commandant  ft  Fort  Chartres, 
in  the  Illinois  country,  acting  under  pressure  from  Gen- 
eral Amherst  (who  had  learned  from  Gladwin  how  es- 
sential to  Pontiac's  success  was  the  expected  help  from 
the  French),  replied  to  the  appeal  that  "  the  great  day 
had  come  at  last  wherein  it  had  pleased  the  Master  of 
Life  to  command  the  Great  King  of  France  and  him  of 
England  to  make  peace  between  them,  sorry  to  see  the 
blood  of  men  spilled  so  long."  So  these  kings  had  or- 
dered all  their  chiefs  and  warriors  to  burv  the  hatchet. 
lie  promised  that  when  this  was  done  the  Indians  would 
see  the  road  free,  the  lakes  and  rivers  unstopped,  and 
ammunition  and  mercliandise  would  abound  in  their 
villages;  their  women  and  children  w^ould  be  cloaked; 
they  would  go  to  dances  and  festivals,  not  cumbered 
with  heavy  clothes,  but  with  skirts,  blankets,  and  rib- 
bons.  '' Forget  then,  my  dear  children,"  he  commanded,' 

'  Gladwin  MSS.,  Letters  from  Peter  Joseph  Neyeon  de  Villiere, 
pp.  363,  364.  365. 

136 


THE    PONT  I  AC    WAR 

"all  evil  talks.  Leave  off  from  spilling  the  blood  of 
your  brethren,  the  English.  Our  hearts  are  now  but 
one;  you  cannot,  at  present,  strike  the  one  without 
havinoj  the  other  for  an  enemy  also." 

CD  ^ 

This  message  had  the  desired  effect.  Dated  on  Sep- 
tember 2Tth,  its  contents  so  dashed  Pontiac's  hopes  that 
on  October  12th  he  sued  most  submissively  for  peace. 
Gladwin,  being  in  need  of  flour,  granted  a  truce,  but 
made  no  promises,  saying  that  General  Amherst  alone 
had  power  to  grant  pardon.  To  Amherst  the  comman- 
dant wrote  that  it  would  be  good  policy  to  leave  matters 
open  until  the  spring,  when  the  Indians  would  be  so 
reduced  for  \vant  of  powder  'lere  would  be  no  danger 
that  they  would  break  out  again,  "  provided  some  exam- 
ples are  made  of  our  good  friends,  the  French,  who  set 
them  on."  Gladwin  then  adds,  "No  advantage  can  be 
gained  by  prosecuting  the  war,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of 
catching  them  [the  Indians].  Add  to  this  the  expense 
of  such  a  war,  which,  if  continued,  the  ruin  of  our  entire 
peltry  trade  must  follow,  and  the  loss  of  a  prodigious 
consumption  of  our  merchandise.  It  will  be  the  means 
of  their  retiring,  which  will  reinforce  other  nations  on 
the  Mississippi,  w^hom  they  will  push  against  us,  and 
make  them  our  enetnies  forever.  Consequently  it  will 
render  it  extremely  difficult  to  pass  that  country,  and 
especially  as  the  French  have  promised  to  supply  them 
with  everything  they  want." 

Then  follows  the  passage,'  often  quoted  to  show 
Gladwin's  cynical  brutality :  "  They  have  lost  between 
eighty  and  ninety  of  their  best  warriors ;  but  if  your 
Excellency  still  intends  to  punish  i\  for  their  bar- 
barities, it  may  be  easier  done,  with    v       y  expense  to 

*  Gladwin  MSS.,  p.  675.  This  letter  is  in  Gladwin's  own  hand- 
writing, and  is  doubtless  his  original  draft. 

137 


THE    NMJUTIIWKST    UNDEU    THREE    FLAGS 

the  crown,  by  permitting  a  free  sale  of  rum,  which  will 
destroy  them  more  effectually  than  lire  and  sword." 
Parkman  closes  the  quotation  at  this  point;  but  a  very 
different  turn  is  given  to  the  matter  in  the  next  sentence, 
taken  from  the  (h'aft  of  the  letter  in  Ghul win's  own 
handwriting,  as  follows :  ''  But  on  the  contrary,  if  you 
intend  to  accommodate  matters  in  spring,  which  I  hope 
you  will  for  the  above  reasons,  it  may  be  necessary  to 
send  up  Sir  William  Johnson."  This  is  the  letter  of  a 
warrior,  who  was  also  somewhat  of  a  statesman. 

Pontiac's  conspiracy  ended  in  failure.  For  five 
months  the  little  garrison  at  Detroit  had  been  sur- 
rounded by  a  thousand  or  more  savages ;  and  nothing 
but  the  untiring  watchfulness  and  the  intrepid  coohiess 
of  the  resourceful  commandant  saved  tlie  post  from  an- 
nihilation and  prevented  the  Indian  occupation  of  the 
Lake  countr3\  General  Amherst  was  so  well  pleased 
with  Gladwin's  course  during  the  first  four  months  of 
the  siege  that  on  September  17th  he  wrote  to  the  Secre- 
tary at  AYar,  Ellis:  "As  there  have  been  two  deputy 
adjutant-generals  serving  here,  I  have  taken  the  liberty 
to  show  a  mark  of  my  entire  satisfaction  of  Major 
Gladwin's  good  conduct  and  commendable  behavior  in 
appointing  him  a  deputy  adjutant  -  general ;  but  to  re- 
main with  the  troops  at  Detroit  in  the  same  manner  as 
has  been  ordered.'  This  is  no  more  than  a  name,  but 
should  it  be  your  gracious  pleasure  to  approve  it,  and 
honor  Major  Gladwin  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant- 
colonel,  I  am  firmly  of  the  opinion  that  the  promotion 
of  so  deservino*  an  officer  must  at  anv  time  be  a  benefit 
to  his  Majesty's  service,  and  this  is  the  sole  view  I  have 
in  mentioning  it  to  you." 

'  Gladiom  MSS.,  p.  675. 
138 


THE    PONTIAC    WAR 

It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Colonel  Bradstreet,  the  hero  of 
Fort  Frontenac,  to  lead  the  great  force  wliich  was  to 
confirm  the  British  power  in  the  Lake  country.  The 
vainglory  of  that  officer  led  him  to  make  with  the 
Indians  a  peace  which  General  Gage,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded Amherst,  was  compelled  to  repudiate.  lirad- 
street's  expedition  got  no  farther  than  Sandusky,  but  a 
detachment  reached  Detroit  late  in  the  August  of  1764, 
and  on  the  last  dav  of  that  montli  Colonel  Gladwin 
departed  from  Niagara  on  his  way  to  Xew  York.  lie 
was  heartily  tired  of  lighting  Indians,  and  preferred  to 
resign  rather  than  to  undertake  another  campaign  of 
that  kind.  Returning  to  England,  we  find  him  in  1774 
living  a  contented  life  with  his  wife  and  children,  but 
ready  again  to  take  up  arms  for  his  king.  On  a  visit 
to  London  he  was  presented  to  George  III.,  who  asked 
him  how  long  he  had  been  in  town.  "•  Three  weeks," 
replied  the  soldier,  to  the  con:^jternation  of  George 
Wert,  who  whispered  to  him  to  say  that  he  had  just 
arrived.  "  But,"  says  Gladwin,  in  a  letter  to  General 
Gage,  "  .IS  T  went  to  court  only  on  that  occasion,  I 
thoug  it  there  could  be  no  harm  in  speaking  the  truth." 

Gladwin  saw  no  further  military  service.'  From 
time  to  time  he  was  promoted  until  he  reached  the 
grade  of  major-general ;  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
he  enjoyed  a  well-earned  rest.  He  died  on  the  22d  of 
June,  1791,  and  a  tablet  in  the  Winger  worth  church, 
in  Derbyshire,  still  bears  record  that  '•  earlv  trained  to 
arms  and  martial  deeds,  he  sought  for  fame  amidst  the 
toils  of  hostile  war  with  that  ardour  which  animates 
the  breast  of  a  brave  soldier.     On  the  plains  of  North 


^  For  a  full  record  of  the  facts  relaxing  to  Gladwin,  see  Gladtcin 
MS8.,  pp.  606-611. 

139 


TllH    NOKTIIWEST    UNDKU    TllUEK    FLAGS 

America  ho  reaped  the  laurels  at  the  battles  of  Niagara 
and  Ticonderoga,  in  which  he  was  wounded.  His  cour- 
age was  conspicuous,  and  his  memorable  defence  of  Fort 
Detroit  against  the  attacks  of  the  Indians  will  long  be 
recorded  in  the  annals  of  a  grateful  country.'' 


CHAPTER   V 
ENGLAND   TAKES   POSSESSION  OF   THE   NORTHWEST 

When  England  came  to  sum  up  her  gains  in  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  she  found  to  her  credit  an  embarrass- 
ment of  riclies.  From  France  she  had  wrested  both 
Canada  and  Guachiloupe,  besides  quieting  forever  French 
pretensions  in  India.  Spain,  taking  up  the  cudgels  for 
France  after  the  fall  of  Quebec,  when  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  England  was  assured,  had  lost  Cuba  by  the 
fall  of  Havana  in  1702.  llai)py  had  it  been  for  civili- 
zation had  Spain's  grip  on  the  "gem  of  the  Antilles" 
been  released  forever;  but  in  the  readjustments  that 
followed  she  received  back  Cuba  from  England  in  ex- 
change for  the  Floridas,  and  from  France  by  secret 
treaty  she  secured  Louisiana,  from  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Pacific.  If  Pitt  had  remained  in  power  to  make 
the  treaty  that  his  genius  and  energy  had  compelled, 
the  choice  mio:ht  not  have  been  between  restorin^^  to 
France  either  the  fur-producing  Canada  or  Guadaloupe, 
rich  in  suo:ar.  His  abilitv  would  have  sufficed  to  con- 
firm  to  England  what  her  armies  and  her  fieets  had 
won. 

To  Benjamin  Franklin  is  due  the  credit,  if  not  for 
the  retention  of  Canada,  at  least  for  making  the  people  of 
England  appreciate  the  wisdom  of  the  choice.  William 
Burke,  the  brother,  and  at  this  time  the  thought-sharer, 
of  the  great  Edmund,  ingeniously  argued  for  the  sugar 

141 


THE    NOUTllWEST    UNDKU    TllUKE    FLAGS 

])lant;itions,  and  caught  the  ear  of  Enghsli  prejudice, 
both  commercial  and  political,  with  the  proposition  that 
it  would  be  good  policy  to  keep  an  enemy  at  the  back 
of  the  lusty  and  arrogant  young  colonies,  whose  ideas 
of  independence  already  had  begun  to  alarm  the  mother- 
country.  At  this  time  (1T<'»<»)  Franklin  was  in  London 
as  the  a^ent  of  the  Pennsvlvania  Asseinblv.  Contro- 
versy  being  the  breath  of  his  nostrils,  he  brought  to  the 
discussion  such  a  wealth  of  knowledge,  such  a  keenness 
of  sarcasm,  and  such  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
conditions  in  Ami-iica,  that  Bui'ke  gave  him  the  credit 
of  having  *'  said  everything,  and  everything  in  the  best 
manner,  that  the  cause  could  bear/' ' 

The  apprehensions  of  American  independence  he 
brushed  aside  with  the  statement  that  already  there 
Avere  fourteen  separate  governments  on  the  Atlantic; 
and  if  the  settlements  should  be  extended,  probably  as 
many  more  would  spring  up  on  the  inland  side.  Xot 
only  were  these  colonies  under  different  governors,  but 
they  had  different  forms  of  government,  different  laws, 
different  interests,  and  some  of  thein  different  religious 
persuasions  and  different  manners.  So  great  was  their 
jealousy  of  one  another  that  however  necessary  a  union 
of  the  colonies  had  long  been  for  their  common  defence 
and  security  against  their  enemies,  yet  they  had  never 
agreed  either  themselves  to  form  such  a  union,  or  to  ask 
the  mother-cou!ity  to  establish  it.  Nothing  but  the  im- 
mediate command  of  the  crown  had  been  able  to  pro- 
duce even  the  imperfect  union,  but  lately  seen  there,  of 
the  forces  of  some  colonies.  ''  If  they  could  not  agree 
to  unite  for  their  defence  against  the  French  and  Ind- 
ians, who  were  perpetually  harassing  their  settlements, 


^  Sparks's  Franklin,  vol.  iv.,  p.  2. 
142 


r.KN.JAMIN    KHANKMN 


ENGLAM>    TAKK8    i'USSKSSlON 

burning  tlieir  villages,  and  murdering  their  people,  could 
it  reasonably  be  supposed  there  was  danger  of  their 
uniting  against  their  own  luition,  which  protects  and 
encourages  them,  with  which  they  iuive  so  many  con- 
nections  and  ties  of  bltjod,  interest,  an<l  alFcction,  and 
which,  it  is  well  known,  they  all  love  much  more  than 
they  love  one  anotlierl'' 

So  much  for  the  special  pleader.  Frnnklin,  however, 
seems  already  to  have  noted  a  fall  in  the  barohicter. 
*' When  I  sav,"  he  continues,  ''that  such  a  union  is  im- 
possible,  I  mean  without  the  most  grievous  tyranny  and 
oppression.  .  .  .  While  the  government  is  mild  and  just, 
while  important  civil  and  religious  rights  are  secure, 
such  subjects  will  be  dutiful  aiul  obedient.  The  waves 
do  not  rise  hut  when  the  winds  b/otoy 

lie  set  forth,  too,  the  barbarity  of  maintaining  on  the 
frontier  of  the  colonies  a  nation  that,  even  in  times  of 
peace  between  the  two  crowns,  instigated  the  ravages  of 
savages  '*  that  delight  in  war,  and  take  pride  in  mur- 
der''; and,  on  the  contrary,  he  showed  the  advantage 
of  providing  in  the  easily  accessible  h^nds  of  the  interior 
such  an  outlet  for  the  increasing  population  as  should 
keep  the  people  to  agriculture  and  thus  ])revent  compe- 
tition with  the  British  manufacturer.  The  fur  regions 
of  America  were  more  accessible  to  London  than  those 
of  Siberia ;  American  iron  and  hem])  journeyed  to  mar- 
ket not  so  far  as  the  Kussian  ;  and  alreadv  the  sin'^le 
province  of  Pennsylvania  was  taking  annually  English 
manufactures  to  the  extent  of  more  than  a  quarter  of 
a  million  pounds  sterling.  Such  reasoning  prevailed; 
Canada  became  a  part  of  the  realm  of  England. 

The  ''  vast  empire  on  the  frozen  shores  of  Ontario," 
added  to  Great  Britain  by  the  energy  of  the  elder  Pitt, 
was  divided    by  royal   proclamation  into  four  distinct 

143 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

and  separate  governments :  Quebec,  East  T-'lorida,  Wost 
Florida,  and  Grenada.'  The  government  of  Quebec  had 
for  its  western  boundary  a  line  drawn  from  Lake  Xepis- 
sing  to  the  foot  of  Lake  Champlain.  East  and  West 
Florida  included  the  lands  within  the  present  State  of 
Florida;  and  Grenada  comprehended  the  island  of  that 
name,  together  with  the  Grenadines,  Domiiuco,  St.  Yin- 
cent,  and  Tobago. 

Within  their  respective  colonies,  governors  and  cnm- 
cils  might  dispose  of  the  crown  lands  to  settlers :  but  no 
governor  or  commander-in-chief  should  presume,  upon 
any  pretence  whatever,  to  grant  warrants  of  survey  or 
])ass  patents  for  lands  beyond  the  bounds  of  their  re- 
spective governments;  and,  until  the  king's  [jlcisure 
should  be  further  known,  the  lands  beyond  the  heads  or 
sources  of  any  of  the  rivers  which  fall  into  the  Atlantic 
were  especially  reserved  to  the  Indian  tribes  for  hunt- 
ing-grounds. The  valley  of  the  Ohio  and  the  country 
about  the  Great  Lakes  was  not  open  to  settlement  or  to 
purchase  without  special  leave  and  license,  and  all  per- 
sons who  had  either  wilfullj^  or  inadvertently  seated 
themselves  upon  any  lands  within  the  prohibited  zone 
between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  southern  limits  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company's  territory  were  warned  to  re- 
move themselves  from  such  settlements. 

^  For  the  text  of  the  proclumation  October  7,  1763,  see  Debates  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  year  1774,  on  tlie  bill  for  making  more 
effectual  provision  for  the  government  of  the  province  of  Quebec, 
drawn  up  from  the  notes  of  the  Riglit  Honorable  Sir  Henry  Caven- 
dish, Bart.,  member  for  Lostwithiel  :  London,  1839.  The  speeches 
were  taken  in  short-hand  by  Cavendish  and  were  printed  forty-eight 
years  later  when  the  subject  of  Canadian  government  was  again  up  in 
Parliament.  The  report  also  contains  Dr.  John  Mitchell's  map  of  the 
North  American  provinces  prepared  in  17'  for  the  Board  of  Trade 
and  Plantations.  The  Canadian  Archices  for  1889  also  contain  the 
proclamation,  in  so  far  as  ii,  relates  to  Indian  lands. 

144 


ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION 

In  order  to  put  a  stop  to  the  '*  great  frauds  ajui  abuses 
that  had  been  committed  in  purchasing  lands  from  the 
Indians,  to  the  great  prejudice  of  our  interests  and  to 
the  great  dissatisfaction  of  the  Indians,  and  to  convince 
the  Indians  of  the  justice  and  determined  resolution  to 
remove  all  reasonable  cause  of  discontent,"  r*^  private 
purchases  of  Indian  lands  within  the  colonies  were  to  be 
allowed ;  but  all  such  Indian  lands  must  first  be  pur- 
chased by  the  representatives  of  the  crown  from  the  Ind- 
ians in  open  assembly.  Trade  with  the  Indians  was  to 
be  free  and  c;  en  to  all  British  subjects  ;  but  every  trad'^r 
w^as  to  be  required  to  take  out  a  license  and  to  give 
security  to  observe  such  regulations  as  might  be  made 
for  the  regulation  of  such  trade.  Fugitives  from  justice 
found  within  the  Indian  lands  were  to  be  seized  and 
returned  to  the  settlements  for  trial. 

Such  was  the  first  charter  of  the  Ts'orthwest,  if  char- 
ter is  the  correct  word  to  apply  to  an  instrument  that 
created  a  forest  preserve,  and  provided  merely  for  the 
apprehension  and  deportation  of  rogues  and  trespassers. 
To  the  new  provinces  was  held  out  the  hopo  that  in  time 
they  might  grow  into  the  stature  of  colonies,  each  with 
a  popular  assembly  instead  of  an  appointive  council; 
aui  within  their  borders  English  law  was  to  prevail; 
but  the  Northwest  was  treated  simply  as  the  roaming 
place  of  savages. 

AYhile  the  partition  of  Xorth  America  was  engaging 
the  attention  of  the  three  great  nations  of  Europe,  the 
people  of  the  colonies  were  eager  to  occupy  the  new 
regions  won  by  their  valor.  The  members  of  the  Ohio 
Company,  whose  enterprise  had  been  rudely  checked  by 
the  French  occupation  of  the  lands  patented  to  them,  at 
once  set  about  establishing  their  rights.  To  this  end. 
Colonel  Thomas  Cresap  most  diplomatically  made  over- 

K  145 


TiiH   NoirniwKST  iTNni:i:  tiiukk  KLA(is 

tnres  to  Doiujuot,  tlio  British  ('oininaiidjint  at  Fort  Pitt; 
lor  on  tlio  protection  of  tliat  ^j^arrison  all  attempts  at 
settlement  must  (l(?|)en(l  for  success.  Inasmuch,  also,  as 
it  was  tiie  pui'jiose  of  the  company  to  settle  on  the  lands 
immigrants  from  (Jermany  and  Switzerland,  tiie  name 
and  fanu*  of  the  Swiss  «^eneral,  Ilenrv  IJoucpiet,  would 
make  it  (piite  worth  while  to  enlist  the  active  co-opera- 
tion of  this  hero  of  three  armies,  by  a(lmittin<^  him  to 
an  e(pial  share  in  their  undertaking.' 

From  Pr(»s(pu'  Isle,  whither  he  had  gone  to  restore 
the  fort  hurned  by  the  retreating  French,  and  to  estab- 
lish a  base  of  supplies  on  Lake  Erie,'  IJouquet  sent  an 
evasive  reply  to  Colonel  Cresa]).  Wiiile  leaving  open 
the  subject  of  joining  the  Ohio  Company,  and  admitting 
his  ability  to  procure  (lerman  and  Swiss  settlers  on 
proper  coiubtions,  Ijcuuiuet  ])ointed  out  the  fact  that  by 
the  late  treaty  at  Easton,  approved  and  conlirmed  by 
the  ministrv  at  h<  ne,  the  British  enffa<»'ed  not  to  settle 
the  lands  bevond  the  Alleghanv ;  and  although  the 
governments  of  Virginia  and  Mai'yland  did  not  accede 
to  that  treaty,  still  they  were  ecjually  bound  by  it,  and 

'  Tlu'  corrospoudcuce  is  to  be  foijnd  in  the  Canadian  Archives  fa?' 
1885).  BoiKjuct  had  served  in  the  Dutch  and  Sardinian  armies  ;  in 
1754  he  and  Frederick  Ilaldiniaud  were  selected  to  raise  men  for  the 
"  Royal  Americans,"  afterwards  known  as  the  Sixtieth  Kitles,  the  offi- 
cers of  which  were  eitlier  American  or  foreit^i'  Protestants.  He  died 
at  Pensacola,  Florida,  about  September  4,  1765.  Tlis  papers  are  calen- 
dared in  the  Canadian  Archire.H,  and  many  of  them  have  been  printed 
in  the  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections. 

"^  Canadian  Archives,  1889,  Bouquet  Correspondence,  p.  45  et  seg. 
Bouquet  left  Fort  Pi!t  July  T,  1700,  with  a  detachment,  and  reached 
Presque  Isle  on  the  17ih,  the  distance  being  eighty-one  atid  a  iialf  miles 
to  Venango,  then  forty-six  to  Le  Banif,  then  fifteen  to  Presque  Isle, 
a  total  of  one  hundred  and  forty-two  and  a  half  miles.  By  the  orders 
of  General  Andierst,  Major  Henry  Gladwin  was  exploring  Lake  Erie. 
Moncktou  was  in  command  at  Fort  Pitt. 

140 


ENGLAND    TAKHS    TM)SSKSSI(>N 

no  scttlcniont  would  hv  poniiittcMl  on  tlic  Ohio  until  tlio 
consont  of  the  Indijins  should  be  procured. 

It  is  not  unhkely  that  Uouijuet  and  l''i'anklin  had 
talked  over  plans  for  the  settlement  of  the  country  be- 
yond the  mountains;  for,  in  the  letter  to  ( V)lonel  Crcsap, 
l>ou(pi(rt  asserts  that  the  lands  arc^  too  remote  to  be  de- 
])endeut  upon  any  onc^  of  the  provinces,  thus  making  it 
n(;cessarv  first  to  Hx  the  form  of  i^overnment  for  this 
ne  •  colony.  This  idea,  as  will  appear,  was  fully  de- 
ve!»>ped  in  Fi-anklin's  correspondence  and  ar<^ument  on 
the  Walpoh^  <^rant.  The  m(imb(;rs  of  the  (;omj)any, 
several  of  whom  were  of  his  Maieslv's  council  in  Vir- 
ginia,  treatc^i  Uouquet's  letter  as  an  acceptanc(i  of  their 
proposition  ;  and  Lieutenant-colonel  Mercer,  in  a  state- 
ment of  the  financial  condition  of  the  enterj)rise,  set 
forth  that  there  were  twenty  shares  on  each  of  which 
£500  had  been  p.iid,  and  the  cash  on  hand  together  with 
the  outstanding  debts  due  to  the  company  made  the 
assets  upward  of  £2000. 

Boucjuet's  answer  was  a  proclamation,  dated  at  Fort 
Pitt,  October  )50,  17()1,  in  which,  after  referring  to  the 
fact  that  the  treaty  of  Easton  preserved  as  an  Indian 
huntin(i:-<j^round  the  country  to  the  west  of  the  AUetrha- 
nies,  he  forbade  either  settlements  or  hunting  in  the 
western  country,  unless  by  sj)ecial  permission  of  the 
commander-in-chief  or  of  the  governor  of  one  of  the 
provinces.'  As  might  have  been  expected,  this  procla- 
mation gave  rise  to  uneasiness  in  V^irginia,  as  it  seemed 
to  obstruct  the  resettling  of  lands  which  had  been  taken 

'  Canadian  Archive!^,  1889,  [).  73.  The  treaty  of  Easton  having  been 
negotiated  unfler  the  direction  of  General  Forbes,  Bouquet  seemed  to 
regard  it  as  especially  sacred.  Indeed,  he  never  was  inclined  to  favor 
the  Virginians,  or  to  consider  that  tiiey  had  any  rights  beyruid  the 
niouutaius.     His  sympathies  were  wholly  with  the  Pennsylvanians. 

147 


THE    NORTH  \Vi:ST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

up  by  ])atent  under  his  Majesty,  and  from  which  the 
settlers  luid  been  driven  by  the  war.  Lieutenant-gov- 
ernor Farquier  stated  that  there  were  sucli  Virginia 
settlements  on  the  Monongahela,  the  Greenbrier,  and 
the  New  River  to  the  westwai'd  of  the  Alleghanies,  and 
on  the  waters  of  the  Ohio;  and  he  objected  to  the  re- 
turning settlers  being  subjected  to  court-martial  proceed- 
ings when  they  should  attempt  to  secure  their  homes.' 

Governor  Fanjuier  admitted  that  he,  in  common  with 
the  other  governors  of  provinces,  had  received,  through 
the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  orders  to  make  no 
grants  of  land  on  the  Ohio  until  his  Majesty's  further 
pleasure  be  known ;  but  Bouquet's  proclamation  appears 
to  have  been  issued  entirely  on  his  own  motion,  as  the 
result  of  his  extensive  knowledge  of  the  conditions  in 
the  western  country.  Certainly  he  received  no  orders 
from  General  Amherst,  whose  first  information  in  re- 
gard to  Bouquet's  action  came  in  a  letter  from  Governor 
Farquier  inclosing  a  copy  of  the  proclamation.  Amherst 
saw  nothing  in  the  document  beyond  protection  to  those 
persons  who  had  a  just  title,  and  the  exclusion  of  those 
who  had  not.  At  the  same  time  he  o^ood-naturedlv 
cautioned  Bouquet  to  "  avoid  doing  anything  that  could 
give  the  colonies  the  least  room  to  complain  of  the 
military  power." 

'  Before  1749  there  were  no  settlers  iu  western  Virginia.  In  that 
year  a  demented  man  wandered  from  Frederick  County  into  the 
wilderness  of  Greenbrier  County,  and  on  his  return  told  his  neigh- 
bors that  he  had  found  streams  runniug  nortliwest.  Lured  by  his 
reports,  Jacob  Martin  and  Stephen  Sewell  built  a  cabin  on  Greenbrier 
River.  In  1762  a  few  families  established  themselves  on  Muddy  Creek 
and  the  Big  Levels.  Those  families  which  did  not  remove  as  com- 
manded were  cut  off  by  the  Indians  in  1763-64,  and  from  that  time 
until  1769  there  was  not  a  single  white  settler  in  Greenbrier  County. 
— De  Ilass's  IncUdfi  Wars  of  Western  Virginia,  p.  42. 

I4d 


ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION 

Before  receiving  General  Amberst's  letter,  Bouquet 
had  explained  to  the  Virginia  authorities  that  for  tlie 
past  two  years  the  western  hinds  liad  been  overrun  by 
"vagabonds/'  wlio  under  a  ])retence  of  hunting  were 
making  settlements,  of  which  the  Indians  made  grievous 
and  repeated  comphiints  as  being  contrary  to  the  treaty 
of  Easton.  In  consequence  General  Monckton  had 
ordered  the  new-comers  to  be  driven  off,  and  when  the 
complaints  continued  Bouquet  issued  the  proclamation 
to  prevent  such  encroachments.  Yet  notwithstanding 
Avhat  he  had  done,  representatives  of  the  Six  Nations 
had  complained  that  they  had  discovered  ten  new  huts 
in  the  woods,  and  many  fields  cleared  for  corn.  All 
such  persons  Bouquet  determined  to  remove;  and,  inas- 
much as  there  was  no  civil  judicature  in  that  country, 
he  proposed  to  try  them  by  court-martial,  a  proceeding 
which  could  in  no  manner  affect  anv  settlement  to  be 
made  thereafter  in  a  part  of  the  country  within  the 
known  limits  of  one  of  the  provinces.  Furthermore, 
the  governor  was  told  that  it  would  be  necessary  to 
obtain  orders  from  the  commander-in-chief  before  any 
patents  could  be  surveyed  on  the  Ohio. 

Governor  Farquier  professed  himself  entirely  satisfied 
with  the  answer,  and  looked  forward  to  an  adjustment 
of  land  matters  by  an  absolute  prohibition  of  all  future 
settlements  on  lands  not  reofularlv  ceded  to  the  kino^'s 
subjects  by  the  Indians,  which  cessions  would  be  by 
treaty  and  not  by  private  purchase.  The  action  of  the 
Virginia  governor  in  appealing  to  Amherst,  however, 
rankled  in  the  breast  of  the  Swiss  soldier,  who  wrote 
to  his  commanding  officer  that  he  considered  the  gov- 
ernor's complaints  too  trivial  to  be  referred  to  head- 
(juarters.  He  said  further  that  he  had  succeeded  in 
breaking  up  the  pra 'tice  of  the  '"outlaws"  in  making 

149 


THE  NOUTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

settlements  contrary  to  law ;  and  he  added,  what  he 
had  purposely  kept  from  Governor  Farcinicr,  the  fact 
tliat  one  reason  for  his  action  was  the  importunities  of 
Colonel  Cresap  for  him  to  join  in  the  scheme  of  the 
Ohio  Company  to  settle  Maryland  and  Virf^inia  families 
on  the  Ohio.  "1  foresaw,''  he  says,  '*tliat  these  poor 
people  would  be  ruined  by  that  bubble."  lie  then 
suggests  that  the  real  reason  for  the  governor's  com- 
plaint was  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  he  had  dared  to 
ditfer  from  some  persons  of  Virginia  about  roads  and 
])rovisions  in  the  campaign  of  1758,  and  that  he  was 
still  obnoxious  to  them.  The  person  from  whom  he 
differed  w^as  Georfj:e  Washin^jton.* 

"Vagabonds"  and  "outlaws'"*  Bouquet  called  those 
settlers  who  in  defiance  of  Indian  treat v  and  the  threat 
of  court-martial  had  planted  their  cabins  and  cleared 
their  fields  bevond  the  Alleorhanies :  and  so  in  the  eves 
of  the  law  they  were.  Yet  they  were  but  the  pioneers 
of  a  mighty  immigration  that  soon  was  to  control  the 
valley  of  the  Ohio  and  to  conquer  the  Northwest.  Nay, 
more ;  they  were  part  and  parcel  of  that  tide  of  hu- 
manity which,  overwhelming  the  conservative  forces 
along  the  seaboard,  was  soon  to  force,  both  in  assembly 
and  in  the  field,  the  independence  of  the  United  States 
of  America.  Taking  their  lives  in  their  hands,  they 
were  ready  to  fight  with  the  Indians  for  the  possession 

*  Washington  strongly  advised  that  Forbes's  arm}-  march  to  Fort 
Duquesne  by  the  Braddock  road,  which  needed  few  repairs.  Bouquet 
however,  decided  to  cut  a  new  road  through  Pennsylvania,  a  tedious 
and  wasteful  operation  for  the  army,  but  an  excellent  thing  for  the 
Pennsylvaniaus  See  Washington  to  Farquier,  Sparks's  Washington, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  308  (note).  The  Bouquet-Washington  correspondence  is  cal- 
endared in  the  Canadian  Ai'chives,  1889.  Bouquet  always  showed  a 
high  respect  for  VVasliingtou's  opinions,  although  ou  this  occasion  he 
did  not  take  the  young  colonel's  advice. 

150 


ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION 

of  the  new  lands  which  their  valor  had  helped  to 
conquer  for  England;  and  neither  the  rights  of  char- 
tered company  nor  yet  a  king's  proclamation  could  stop 
them.  At  the  same  time,  the  treaty  of  Easton  had 
been  negotiated  at  the  instance  of  Bouquet's  superior, 
General  Forbes,  with  the  express  j)urpose  of  quieting 
the  Ohio  Indians  bv  coniirmin*;-  to  them  the  ri^dit  to 
occupy  their  lands  north  of  that  river;  and  Bouquet 
was  justified  in  using  all  means  in  his  power  to  compel 
the  observance  of  the  compact.  Tiie  task,  however, 
was  beyond  the  abilities  of  any  commander. 

With  Washington  the  settlers  beyond  the  Blue  Eidge 
had  defended  P^ort  Necessity,  and  their  steadiness  saved 
from  destruction  the  remnant  of  Braddock's  army.'  *' A 
pernicious  and  pugnatious  people,"  the  Quakers  called 
them,  and  so  they  were.'  It  has  been  well  said  of  them 
that  "  they  kept  the  commandments  of  God  and  every- 
thing else  they  could  lay  their  hands  on.''^  They  were 
now  ready  to  possess  the  rich  lands  on  the  Ohio  in  spite 
of  the  treaty  of  Easton*  and  Colonel  Bouquet's  procla- 
mation. 

Meanwhile  the  Indians  throughout  the  Northwest 
had  become  aroused  at  the  encroachments  of  the  whites, 
and  were  preparing  to  defend  their  country  against  the 
invaders.  On  July  3,  1763,  Bouquet,  who  was  moving 
through  Pennsylvania  with  a  force  of  regulars  and  pro- 
vincials to  garrison  the  posts  on  the  head- waters  of  the 
Ohio,  received  news  that  Presque  Isle,  Le  Boeuf,  and  Ye- 

'  Proceedings  of  the  Scotch-Irish  Congress,  1889,  Henry's  address,  p. 
118. 

2  21,1(1^^  Colonel  A.  K.  McCliire's  address,  1889,  p.  184. 

'Ibid.,  Dr.  Mcintosh's  address,  1889,  p.  118. 

*  George  Croglian's  journal  of  the  proceedings  at  the  treaty  of 
Easton  is  to  be  found  in  the  Colonial  History  of  y^ew  York,  vol.  vii., 
p.  280  et  seq. 

151 


THE     NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLxVGS 

nango  had  been  captured  by  the  Indians,  and  that  Fort 
Pitt  was  invested  by  savages.  In  vain  he  sought  sub- 
stantial aid  from  Pennsylvania.  The  people  of  that 
province  were  too  much  engrossed  witli  their  quarrels 
with  the  proprietors  to  provide  efficient  protection  to 
the  frontiers.  About  noon  on  the  5th  of  July,  when  the 
little  army  of  Highhmders  and  Rangers  was  within 
twenty-six  miles  of  Fort  Pitt,  the  savages  suddenly  at- 
tacked the  advance-guard,  but  were  driven  from  their 
ambush  and  up  the  heights.  While  the  action  in  front 
was  in  progress  another  band  of  savages  attacked  the 
convoy  in  the  rear,  and  at  nightfall  Bouquet  found  him- 
self completely  hemmed  in  by  the  enemy,  with  a  loss  of 
sixty  killed  or  wounded.  In  the  midst  of  his  dead  and 
d^^ing,  the  gallant  leader  that  night  reported  to  General 
Amherst  his  "admiration  of  the  cool  and  steady  be- 
havior  of  the  troops,  who  did  not  fire  a  shot  without 
orders,  and  drove  the  enemy  from  their  posts  with  fixed 
bayonets."  In  the  morning  the  savages  surrounded  the 
camp,  and  with  shouts  and  yelps  made  several  bold  ef- 
forts to  penetrate  the  breastworks  hastily  constructed 
of  bags  of  flour.  Tired  by  a  morning  march  of  seven- 
teen miles  and  an  afternoon  of  battle,  suffering  from 
thirst  more  intolerable  than  the  enemy's  fire,  even  the 
gallant  Highlanders  and  stubborn  Rangers  were  dis- 
heartened when  their  enemy  retreated  only  to  come 
back  tiie  stronger  when  they  had  lured  the  soldiers 
from  their  defences.  In  his  perplexity,  Bouquet  hit 
upon  the  daring  expedient  of  ordering  two  companies 
within  the  circle  of  flour  bags,  and  filling  the  space  by 
opening  the  files  on  right  and  left,  as  if  to  cover  a  re- 
treat. The  deceived  savages  with  daring  intrepidity 
rushed  headlong  on ;  but  at  the  very  moment  when 
they  thought  themselves  masters  of  the  camp,  the  com- 

152 


ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION 

panies  under  Major  Campbell  struck  their  right  flank  : 
and  although  the  savages  resolutely  returned  the  tire, 
they  could  not  stand  the  irresistible  shock  of  the  Eng- 
lish. As  they  turned  to  run,  the  soldiers  concealed  be- 
hind the  breastworks  poured  in  a  galling  lire;  and  this 
so  overawed  the  left  of  the  Indian  line  that  they  too 
joined  in  the  run.  So  bravely  did  the  troops  behave 
that,  as  Bouquet  reports,  ''  to  attempt  their  eulogium 
would  but  detract  from  their  merit."* 

Colonel  Bouquet's  signal  victory  over  the  savages  at 
Bushy  Run  made  him  the  hero  of  the  frontiers,  and 
when  it  was  known  that  he  was  to  lead  an  expedition 
to  the  Ohio  towns,  volunteers  flocked  to  his  standard. 
Colonel  Cresap  promised  to  bring  a  party  of  Virginia 
woodsmen  ;  Sir  William  Johnson  offered  to  send  a  band 
of  friendly  Indians;  and  Pennsylvania  undertook  to 
raise  a  thousand  men.  This  change  in  the  tem])er  of 
the  colonists  was  most  agreeable  to  Colonel  Bouquet, 
who  in  times  past  had  chafed  at  the  colonial  peace  pro- 
clivities, and  also  at  the  extreme  reluctance  of  the  bor- 
der settlers  to  protect  their  own  homes  and  families. 
Even  now  he  was  hampered  by  the  militia  laws  of  the 
colonies,  that  forbade  payment  for  services  rendered  be- 
yond their  ow^n  boundaries  ;  for  while  Virginia  was  ever 
readv  to  claim  the  territories  embraced  in  the  ori^^inal 
charter,  when  it  came  to  paying  for  militia  to  conquer 
those  territories,  the  authorities  at  this  time  construed 
the  militia  law  as  limited  in  its  operation  to  the  banks  of 
the  Ohio.  To  overcome  this  obstacle.  Bouquet  suggested 
that  a  reward  for  scalps  would  make  the  expedition 
profitable  to  volunteers ;  and  he  was  not  in  the  least 
hard-hearted   or   blood-thirsty    in  so  doing,  for  such 

'  Bouquet's  reports  to  Amherst  are  given  in  the  Canadian  ArcJiives, 
1889,  pp.  59-71. 

153 


THE    NORTUWEST    UNDEU    TllUEE    FLAGS 

bounties  were  so  usual  among  the  colonies  that  we  find 
Washington  advising  the  payment  of  a  bounty  for  the 
scalp  of  M.  I)(jnville,  a  French  officer,  '^  the  same  as  if 
he  had  been  an  Indian.'" 

Born  near  tlie  shores  of  the  beautiful  Lake  Geneva, 
in  the  year  171i>,  Henry  Houcjuet  was  seventeen  years 
old  when  he  began  his  military  career  as  a  cadet  in  the 
regiment  of  Constant,  in  service  of  the  States-CTeneral 
of  Ilolhmd.  Later  lie  served  the  King  of  Sardinia  as 
an  adjutant;  and  at  the  battle  of  C(my  he  obeyed  orders 
by  occupying  the  brink  of  a  preci[)ice  and  then  beguiling 
his  men  so  that  they  should  not  become  apprehensive  of 
the  danger  of  their  position.  His  record  of  service 
against  France  and  Spain  led  the  Prince  of  Orange  to 
make  him  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  regiment  of  Swiss 
Guards  formed  at  the  Hague  in  1748;  and  in  this 
capacity  he  was  one  of  the  three  officers  who  received 
the  towns  in  the  Low  Countries  evacuated  by  the 
French,  arranging  also  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners 
after  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  Then  came  a  tour 
of  France  and  Italy  with  Lord  Middleton ;  and  after- 
wards study  of  military  art  and  a  few  years  spent  in 
the  highly  intellectunl  society  at  the  Hague.  Sir  Joseph 
Yorke,  having  been  acquainted  with  Bouquet  and  his 
friend  Frederick  Haldimand,  persuaded  them  to  take 

•  "Monsieur  Donville,  commander  of  the  party,  was  killed  and 
scalped,  and  his  instructions  found  about  him.  .  .  .  Mr.  Paris  sent 
the  scalp  by  Jenkins;  and  I  hope,  though  it  is  not  an  Indian's,  they 
will  meet  with  adequate  reward." — Washington  to  Dinwiddle,  Sparks's 
Washington,  vol.  ii.,  p.  136. 

There  was  no  scalp  bounty  in  Virginia  at  this  time  ;  but  shortly 
afterwards  the  bounty  was  £10  for  every  Indian  captured  of  killed. 
In  Maryland  the  reward  was  as  high  as  £50.  In  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampshire  the  bounty  varied  at  different  times  from  £8  to  £100. 
— Sparks's  Washington,  vol.  ii.,  p.  136  (note). 

154 


E\(;LANI)    TAKKS     I»0SSKSSI(>\ 

service  as  colonels  in  the  Royal  Americans,  a  regiment 
recruit i  11  <,^  among  the  (German  settlers  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Maryland,  and  ofhcerod  in  tlie  main  by  men  who 
had  seen  hard  service  in  the  army  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
public.  Attractive  in  person,  a  vastly  entertaining  cor- 
respondent with  his  fellow  officers,  Bouquet  was  yet  so 
tiioroughly  a  soldier  as  to  ])resent  only  a  rough  edge  to 
civilians.  lie  found  in  iiis  profession  that  support  for 
his  pride  which  a  lack  of  family  and  fortune  had  denied. 
Without  kith  or  kin,  he  sought  in  vain  the  love  of  a 
woman  averse  to  his  profession;  and  during  his  Amer- 
ican campaigns  he  carried  on  with  her  a  correspondence 
that  reveals  a  depth  of  feeling  one  would  little  suspect 
in  a  man  who  seemed  entirely  self  sufficient.  11  is  sol- 
diers  believed  in  him;  the  colonial  governments  highly 
appreciated  his  services,  and  men  of  learning  found  him 
most  congenial.  To  a  rare  degree  he  combined  the 
qualities  of  a  resourceful  soldier  and  a  careful  adminis- 
trator.* 

'  A  sketch  of  Brigadier-general  Plenry  Bouquet,  by  George  Har- 
rison Fislier,  togetlier  with  a  portrait  engraved  from  a  painting  in  the 
possession  of  Mrs.  J.  Francis  Fisher,  is  given  in  the  Pennftylrafiia 
Magazine  of  Ilistonj  and  Biographij,  vol,  iii.,  No.  2,  1879.  The  Pliila- 
delphia  edition  (1765)  of  Bouquets  Expedition,  by  Dr.  Willinni  Smith, 
is  rare;  there  was  a  London  (1766)  and  an  Amsterdam  edition  (1769) 
in  French.  In  1868,  Robert  Clarke  &  Co.,  Cincinnati,  reprinted  the 
work,  with  a  preface  by  Francis  Parkman  and  a  translation  of  Dumas's 
biograpiiical  sketch  from  the  Amsteniain  edition.  IIarphk's  Maga- 
zine for  October,  1861,  has  a  popuhir  account  of  the  expedition, 
based  on  the  Philadelpliia  edition.  Mr.  Fisher's  article  contains  Bou- 
quet's letters  to  Miss  Anne  Willing,  the  last  of  which  is  dated  at  Fort 
Pitt,  January  15,  1761.  Early  in  1762  Miss  Willing  married  a  Mr. 
Frances,  but  recently  come  from  England,  and  a  man  of  family  and 
wealth.  In  spite  of  the  plain  intimations  in  her  letters  that  she  would 
not  choose  a  soldier  for  a  husband,  Bouquet  seems  to  have  been  ill 
prepared  for  the  news  of  her  approaching  marriage  ,  and  so  deeply 
was  he  interested  that  two  of  his  fellow-officers  entered  into  a  friend- 
loo 


TiiK  N(jUTii\\  KST  UNDKU  tiii:i:k   fla(;s 

On  August  14,  17*I4,  Bouquot  received  Bradstreot's 
message  froiu  Prescjuo  Isle,  saying  that  he  had  con- 
cluded a  peace  with  the  Delawares  and  Shawanese.  In- 
asnuicli  as  tnunlers  and  (hipredations  hv  these  two  na- 
tions continued  as  In/fore,  Boucpiet  kept  u|)  his  prepara- 
tions, nor  was  he  to  he  dissuaded  from  his  purpose  by 
the  Indians  wiio  came  to  assure  him  that  his  force  was 
insulHcient  to  witiistand  the  power  of  the  numerous  na- 
tions through  whose  country  he  was  to  pass.  On  Oc- 
tolKir  3d  the  long  march  began.  First  went  a  corps  of 
volunteers  raised  in  Yirnrinia  i)ut  paid  bv  Pennsvlvania 
to  complete  its  complement.  These  expert  woodsmen 
acted  as  skirmishers,  protecting  both  flanks  of  the  army. 
Then  came  the  axe -men  supported  by  light  infantry; 
these  were  followed  by  the  regulars  of  the  Forty-third  and 
the  Sixtieth  regiments,  marching  in  three  columns;  and 
after  them  as  rear-guard  and  flankers  came  two  platoons 
of  Pennsylvania  militia,  the  reserve  corps  of  grenadiers, 
light-horsemen,andVirginiaand  Pennsylvania  volunteers. 
In  silence  the  men  marched,  and  a  halt  was  the  signal 
for  the  whole  body  to  face  outward  ready  for  an  attack. 

The  start  was  made  on  Wednesday.  On  Friday  the 
army  passed  through  Logstown,  seventeen  and  a  half 
miles  from  Fort  Pitt,  a  place  once  noted  for  the  thriving 
trade  carried  on  there  between  the  French  and  English 
traders  and  the  Shawanese  and  Dela wares,  but  since 

ly  conspiracy  first  to  break  the  news  gently  to  him,  and  afterwards 
to  soften  the  blow  that  evidently  had  seriously  affected  his  peace  of 
mind.  His  friendship  with  the  Willing  family  was  not  interrupt- 
ed, however,  and  in  his  will  of  1763  Thomas  Willing  was  named  as 
executor.  Subsequently,  however,  in  the  will  made  just  before  his 
death  in  1765,  he  appointed  his  friend  and  companion,  Frederick 
Haldimand,  his  executor  and  heir,  a  trust  Haldimand  had  on  his  mind 
so  late  as  1786,  as  his  diary  shows. —See  Canadian  Archives,  1889,  p. 
xxvii.  and  137. 

156 


ENGLAND    TAKKS    l'US.SHSSlON 

1750  ii  deserted  village.  The  next  day  the  army  I'iKmI 
down  the  steep  batdcs  near  tike  mouth  of  the  IJeaver,  and 
below  the  present  town  of  New  Brighton  found  a  ford 
stony  and  pretty  deep.  On  the  fertile  bottom-lands 
where  the  town  of  I^eaver  now  stands  they  passed 
through  an  old  French  Lrading-post  with  its  houses  of 
hewn  logs  and  chimneys  of  stone.  Thus  far  the  march 
had  been  like  an  excursion.  On  the  left  was  the  broai' 
river,  island  strewn,  with  here  a  rush  of  narrowed  \.'a- 
ters  and  there  a  spreading  of  clear  water  over  a  bed 
of  shale,  seen  plainly  far  out  into  the  shallows.  Be- 
yond the  placid  river  were  stretches  of  verdure,  border- 
ed by  hills  glorified  in  the  haze  of  autumn.  As  they 
marched,  the  beauties  of  frost-touched  leaf  delighted  the 
eye,  and  the  pungent  smells  of  forest  fires  were  as  in- 
cense to  the  nostrils.  From  their  triumphant  advance 
the  Indians  either  fied  or  else  hid  themselves  to  watch 
its  progress  and  carry  a  swift  report  of  the  invincible 
character  of  the  expedition. 

Turning  to  the  west,  Bouquet's  little  army,  now  cut 
off  from  its  base  of  supplies  at  Fort  Pitt,  entered  the 
Indian  country,  a  region  of  trackless  forests  filled  with 
unknown  numbers  of  the  subtlest  savages  east  of  the 
Mississippi.  Yet  so  strict  was  the  discipline  of  the  regu- 
lars, and  so  vigilant  were  the  volunteers,  that  not  a  hos- 
tile shot  was  tired  on  the  entire  march  to  the  Muskingum. 
On  the  IGth,  after  a  wilderness  journey  of  two  weeks. 
Colonel  Bouquet  was  met  by  six  Indians  who  came  as 
an  embassy  to  say  that  eight  miles  farther  on  the  sav- 
ages were  assembled  to  sue  for  peace  ;  and  on  the  17th 
the  meeting  began  with  the  usual  formalities  of  peace- 
pipe  and  wampum -belts.  The  Senecas,  Dela wares,  and 
Shawanese,  represented  by  their  chiefs,  made  the  usual 
excuses  and  the  usual  promises.     On  Bouquet's  part  the 

157 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

ceremonial  delay  after  receivinir  a  inessa<?e  of  such  im- 
portance  was  prolonged  by  autumn  rains,  so  that  it  was 
the  20tli  before  lie  made  answer. 

Brushing  aside  as  frivolous  the  Indian  excuses  that 
they  were  driven  to  war  by  the  Western  nations,  Bou- 
quet charged  them  with  phindering  and  killing  or  capt- 
uring the  traders  who  had  been  sent  among  them  at 
their  own  request ;  with  attacking  Fort  Pitt,  which  had 
been  built  with  their  express  consent ;  with  murdering 
four  men  who  had  been  sent  to  them  with  a  public  mes- 
sage, thereby  violating  customs  sacred  even  among  bar- 
barous nations;  with  attacking  the  king's  troops  at 
Bushy  Tlun,  and,  when  defeated,  ravaging  the  frontiers; 
with  violating  the  promises  they  had  made  General 
Bradstreet  that  they  would  deliver  their  prisoners  to 
him  and  recall  their  war-parties. 

"I  have  brought  with  me,''  said  Bouquet,  "the  rela- 
tions of  the  people  you  have  massacred  or  taken  as  pris- 
oners. They  are  impatient  for  revenge ;  and  it  is  with 
great  difficulty  that  I  can  protect  you  against  their  just 
resentment,  which  is  only  restrained  by  the  assurances 
given  them  thac  no  peace  shall  ever  be  concluded  until 
you  have  given  us  f 'ill  satisfaction.  Your  former  allies — 
the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  and  Wyandots  —  have  made 
their  peace  with  us;  and  the  Six  Nations  have  joined  us 
against  you.  We  now  surround  you,  having  possession  of 
all  the  waters  of  the  Ohi^  the  Mississippi,  the  Miamis,  and 
the  lakes.  All  the  French  living  in  those  parts  are  now 
subjects  of  Great  Britain,  anvl  dare  no  longer  assist  you. 
It  is  therefore  in  our  power  totally  to  extirpate  you. 
But  the  English  are  a  merciful  and  generous  nation, 
averse  to  shed  the  blood  even  of  their  most  cruel  en- 
emies, and  if  you  convince  us  that  you  repent  your 
past  perfidy  and  that  we  can  depend  on  your  good  be- 


ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION 

havior  in  the  future,  you  may  yet  hojie  for  mercy  and 
peace.'' 

Thoroughly  frightened  by  Bouquet's  threats,  and  yet 
encouraged  by  his  promises  of  peace,  the  savages  pre- 
pared to  give  up  their  prisoners.  A  strange  scene  was 
enacted  on  the  9th  of  November,  the  dav  lixed  for  the 
surrender  of  the  two  hundred  and  six  captives,  more 
than  half  of  whom  were  women  and  children.*  At- 
tended by  his  principal  officers,  Colonel  Bou(piet  moved 
to  a  bower  hastily  built  to  answer  the  purposes  of  a 
council-chamber.  Ranged  in  ranks  opposite  to  him  were 
the  Indian  ambassadors,  a  motley  array,  clad  some  in 
skins  of  wild  animals,  some  in  shirts  of  linen  or  of 
dressed  skin,  with  breech -clouts,  and  leggings  reaching 
half-way  up  the  thigh  from  their  moccasin-covered  feet. 
Their  heads  were  shaved,  save  for  a  small  tuft  of  hair 
on  lop  ;  and  their  elongated  ears  and  their  noses  were 
adorned  with  heavy  rings  of  gold  and  silver,  while  their 
faces  were  streaked  with  paint  of  various  colors.  A  rifle, 
shot-poucb.  powder-horn,  tomahawk,  and  a  scalping-knife 
hanging  abc  ut  the  neck,  completed  the  equipment  of  each 
warrior. 

Kiyashuta,  chief  of  the  Spiiacas,  backed  by  fifteen 
warriors,  was  the  first  to  speak.  *' With  this  string  of 
wampum,"  he  said,  "  we  wipe  the  tears  from  your  eyes. 
AYe  deliver  these  prisoners,  the  last  of  your  flesh  and 
blood  remaining  among  us.  We  gather  together  and 
bury  with  this  belt  all  the  bones  of  the  people  that  have 
been  killed  during  this  unhappy  war,  which  the  evil 
spirit  has  caused.  We  cover  the  bones  which  have 
been  buried,  that  they  may  never  more  be  remembered. 

'  Of  the  Virginians  there  were  thirty  -  two  males  and  fifty  -  eight 
"vvomen  and  cliildren  ;  of  the  Peniisylvaniaus  forty-nine  mules  and 
sixty-seven  women  aud  children. 

159 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

Again  we  cover  their  place  with  leaves  that  it  may  no 
more  be  seen.  We  have  been  long  astray.  The  path 
between  you  and  us  lias  been  stopped.  We  give  this 
belt  that  it  may  be  cleared  again.  While  you  hold  it 
fast  by  one  end  and  w^e  by  the  other,  we  shall  always 
be  able  to  discover  anvthino-  that  mifjht  disturb  our 
friendship." 

BoiKjuet  expressed  his  readiness  to  join  in  covering 
the  bones  of  the  shun,  so  that  their  place  might  no  more 
be  known.  The  king,  his  master  and  their  father,  had 
appointed  him  to  mcdvc  war.  To  Sir  William  Johnson 
belonged  the  duty  of  making  peace.  To  him  they  must 
go;  but  first  they  must  give  hostages  that  they  would 
commit  no  further  violence  against  his  Majesty's  subjects 
until  peace  should  be  concluded,  and  furthermore  they 
must  agree  to  abide  by  the  treaty  they  were  to  make. 
The  next  day,  the  Turkey,  the  Turtle,  and  the  Casta- 
logas  tribes  of  the  Delawares  made  their  peace  and 
rendered  up  six  hostages  and  also  five  deputies  to  treat 
with  Sir  William  Johnson ;  and  on  the  12th  the  haughty 
Shawanese,  conscious  of  ill-doing,  put  forth  Red  Hawk 
to  clean  the  ears  of  the  Eno^lish  of  the  evil  stories  thev 
had  heard;  to  take  the  tomahawk  from  ^eir  hands  and 
throw  it  up  to  the  Great  Spiri*^  to  dispose  of  it  as  he 
might  see  fit;  and  to  grasp  \Vi.  .  their  white  brothers 
the  chain  of  friendship,  so  that  the  old  men,  the  women 
and  the  children,  should  know  an  end  of  war.  They 
promised  to  yield  their  remaining  prisoners  v/hen  the 
others  of  their  nation  should  return  from  the  hunt ;  and 
they  asked  that  the  peace  treaty  made  with  Pennsyl- 
vania in  1701  might  be  renewed.  • 

Peace  being  now  assured,  the  prisoners  were  brought 

foilh.     Then  husbands  clasped  in  fond  embrace  wives 

who  had  been  torn  from  them  months  and  years  ago; 

160 


ENGLAND    TAKES    TOSSESSION 

mothers  recognized  in  bronzed  and  naked  children  the 
babes  from  whom  they  had  been  separated  by  the 
fortunes  of  border  warfare;  brothers  with  diiticulty 
talked  with  sisters  who  had  forgotten  their  own  lan- 
guage and  now  understood  only  the  jargon  of  the  forest. 
Saddest  sight  of  all  were  the  men  who,  hoping  against 
hope,  had  made  the  long  march  only  to  find  at  the  end 
no  trace  of  their  lost  ones. 

Nor  was  all  joy  in  the  restoration.  The  Indians,  so 
stoical  in  defeat  and  torture,  now  were  melted  even  to 
tears,  so  reluctant  were  they  to  part  from  captives 
whom  they  had  treated  with  all  the  consideration  of 
which  their  savage  nature  was  capable.  On  the  other 
hand,  many  a  woman  had  found  an  Indian  husband 
from  whose  embraces  she  had  to  be  torn :  and  manv  a 
youth  bitterly  fought  against  a  return  to  even  such  light 
restraints  as  border-life  imposed.  Offerings  of  corn  and 
horses  and  skins  the  Indians  brought  to  ease  the  jour- 
ney of  the  returning  captives ;  and  one  young  Mingo 
warrior,  regardless  of  the  danger  he  ran  from  revenge- 
ful relatives,  was  not  to  be  restrained  from  following 
the  object  of  his  affections  even  to  the  gates  of  Fort 
Pitt. 

AVithout  adventure  the  expedition  returned,  and  for 
a  time  peace  reigned  along  the  Ohio.  Bouquet,  belong- 
ing to  that  class  of  soldiers  who  look  upon  war  only  as 
a  means  of  securing  peace,  had  in  mind  a  plan  where- 
by all  grants  of  land  westward  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains, including  the  charter  of  the  Ohio  Company,  should 
be  annulled,  also  the  proprietors  of  Pennsylvania  should 
be  brought  to  surrender  that  portion  of  their  charter 
which  related  to  lands  beyond  the  mountains,  and  Yir- 
o:inia  should  have  her  boundaries  curtailed  by  the  ar- 
bitrary  action  of  the  king.    Then  a  new  military  gov- 

L  161 


THE     NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

ernment  mi^^lit  be  formed  to  tlie  westward  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  thus  covering  Pennsylvania  from  Indian  at- 
tacks, and  enhancing  the  value  of  the  remaining  lands.' 
The  very  suggestion  of  such  a  plan  to  the  people  strug- 
gling to  force  their  way  into  the  fertile  Ohio  country 
would  have  aroused  overpowering  opposition ;  and  it  is 
fortunate  for  Bouquet's  reputation  that,  as  a  reward 
for  his  successful  Muskingum  expedition,  he  received 
well  -  merited  promotion,  and  an  assignment  to  Pensa- 
cola.  He  had  no  sooner  become  settled  in  his  new  post, 
however,  than  he  succumbed  to  disease,  and  after  nearly 
eight  years  of  arduous  service  in  America  he  died  at  the 
height  of  his  fame  and  usefulness.' 

To  follow  up  the  peace  conquered  by  Bouquet,  Sir 
William  Johnson  sent  his  deputy,  George  Croghan,  on  a 
vovage  of  discoverv  to  the  Hlinois  countrv.  The  mid- 
die  of  May,  1765,  the  party  set  out  from  Fort  Pitt  in 
two  bateaux,  and  were  soon  joined  by  deputies  of  the 
Senecas,  Shawanese,  and  Dela wares.  Aided  by  the  swift 
current,  the  light  boats  made  rapid  progress  down  the 
island-strewn  river.  After  a  brief  stop  at  the  ruins  of 
the  Shawanese  village  of  Logstown,  the  party  re-em- 
barked and  before  nightfall  passed  the  old  stone  chim- 
neys marking  the  site  of  the  town  the  French  built  for 
the  Delawares  a  mile  below  Beaver  Creek ;  passed  also 
the  mouth  of  the  Little  Beaver,  and  reached  a  camping 
spot  near  Yellow  Creek — a  journey  of  fifty-four  miles. 
The  next  day  brought  them  into  the  midst  of  the  Seneca 
villages ;  on  the  fourth  day  they  passed  the  mouth  of 
the  Muskingum  and  the   Little  Kanawha  rivers,  and 

'  Canadian  Arcliives,  lb  J,  Bouq'iet  to  Gage,  p.  65. 

^  Bouquet  arrived  in  Philadelphia  in  April,  1757,  and  until  1759 
was  employed  in  South  Carolina,  with  headquarters  at  Charleston. 
He  died  at  Pensacola  some  time  before  September,  1765. 

163 


KNGLAXD    TAKES    POSSESSION 

came  into  a  country  of  rich  bottom-lands,  where  roamed 
buffaloes,  deer,  bears,  and  turkeys.  So  plentiful  was 
the  game  that  a  good  hunter,  without  much  fatigue  to 
himself,  couUl  supply  meat  for  a  hundred  men. 

From  camp  on  the  llockhocking,Croghan  sent  a  runner 
to  summon  the  French  traders  in  the  Illinois  country  to 
meet  him  on  the  banks  of  the  Scioto,  and  there  swear 
allegiance  to  his  Britannic  Majesty,  whose  subjects  they 
had  become  and  whose  license  to  trade  they  must  ob- 
tain. Should  the  French  refuse  to  obey  the  summons 
the  Shawanese  were  warned  to  compel  them  to  come. 
On  the  23d  they  passed  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  and 
came  to  the  spot  where  formerly  stood  the  Shawanese 
Lower  Town  that  was  washed  away  by  a  "  fresh,"  dur- 
ing which,  as  Croghan  relates  from  personal  experience, 
the  waters  rose  until  they  coyered  the  plateau  fort\^  feet 
above  the  river  and  stood  nine  feet  deep,  compelling  the 
inhabitants  to  take  to  canoes.  Afterwards  the  Shawa- 
nese built  their  town  on  the  south  side  of  the  Ohio,  but 
durino^  the  late  war  thev  had  retired  to  a  safer  situation 
on  the  plains  of  the  Scioto.' 

From  the  24tli  to  the  27th  was  spent  with  the  French 
traders,  and  on  the  last  day  of  May  Croghan  came  to 
the  great  salt-lick,  celebrated  as  the  place  where  the 
"  elephants'  bones  are  found."  On  the  way  to  the  lick, 
which  was  four  miles  back  from  the  south  bank  of  the 
Ohio,  the  party  passed  along  ''  a  large  road  which  the 

•  The  record  of  Croghan's  journey  must  be  pieced  togotlier  from 
his  official  journal  transmitted  to  Sir  William  Jolinson  (3><'r  York 
Colonial  Documents,  vol.  vii.,  p.  779);  his  topographical  journal,  which 
appeared  in  the  MontJdy  American  Journal  of  Geologi/  and  Xatnral 
Science,  December,  1831,  and  is  reprinted  in  Butler's  Histori/  of  Ken- 
tucky;  and  from  a  third  journal  printed  in  S.  P.  Hildreth's  Pioneer 
IliHtory.  For  a  discussion  as  to  these  journals,  see  Narrative  anu 
Critical  Ilisitory  of  America,  vol.  vi.,  p.  704. 

163 


THE  xoiiTiiwEST  u \ D K II  tiiukk:  flags 

buffaloes  have  beaten,  spacious  eiiougli  for  two  wagons 
to  go  abreast/'  On  the  bank  at  the  edge  of  the  lick 
they  found  two  tusks  about  six  feet  in  length  ;  one  of 
these  they  took  away  with  them.  On  the  same  day 
they  passed  the  mouth  of  the  Kiver  Kentucky,  or  Ilol- 
sten's  Iliver;  and  on  the  1st  of  June  they  reac  1  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio,  the  present  site  of  LouisvilK  Six 
days  later  they  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash, 
a  river  that  "runs  through  one  of  the  finest  countries 
in  the  world,  the  lands  being  extremely  rich  and  well 
watered."  Making  camp,  Croghan  despatched  messages 
to  "  Lord  Frazer,"  an  English  officer  who  had  been  sent 
from  Fort  Pitt,  and  to  M.  St.  Ange,  the  French  com- 
mandant at  Fort  Chartres.'  To  the  Illinois  Indians  he 
sent  belts  announcing  the  peace  made  with  the  Dela- 
wares,  the  Shawanese,  and  the  Six  Xations,  and  sum- 
moning them  to  conclude  matters  after  the  same  man- 
ner. 

At  daybreak  on  the  8th,  an  outbreak  of  hideous  yells 
mingled  with  the  crack  of  muskets  awoke  the  camp ; 
and  Croghan  jumped  to  his  feet  to  receive  a  shot  from 
the  concealed  enemv.  Two  of  his  men  and  three  Ind- 
ians  were  killed,  and  but  two  whites  and  one  Indian 
escaped  unhurt.  The  attacking  party  was  made  up  of 
eighty  Kickapoos  and  Mascoutens.  A  wounded  Shawa- 
nese, angry  and  contemptuous,  threatened  the  Kicka- 
poos with  the  vengeance  of  the  combined  nations  of  the 

'  Lieutenant  Alexander  Fraser  had  been  sent  with  a  small  force  to 
Kaskaskia  to  prepare  the  way  for  Croghan.  The  latter  had  been  de- 
layed by  the  plunder  of  his  goods  by  a  party  of  masked  men  near 
Fort  Louden,  the  country  people  being  fearful  lest  the  traders  for 
their  own  profit  would  supply  the  Indians  with  guns  and  annnunition 
with  which  to  ravage  the  frontiers. — See  Canadian  Archives,  1889,  pp. 
278  and  2T9  ;  also  Col.  James  Smith's  Account  of  Remarkable  Occur- 
rences. 

164 


«^ 


A    FKKNCir   THADKK 


EXGLAM)    TAKKS    POSSKSSION 

north  ;  but  the  only  effect  of  the  speech  was  to  hasten 
the  division  of  the  spoils  and  to  liurry  the  march  of  the 
prisoners  up  tlie  Wabasli  to  •'  Post  Vincent."  A  week's 
march  through  thin  woodhmd  interspersed  with  broad 
savannas,  brougiit  the  ])arty  to  the  j)ost,  which  at  that 
time  consisted  of  some  fourscore  French  families  settled 
on  the  east  side  of  the  river  in  the  midst  of  a  country 
rich  in  wheat  and  tobacco.  The  French,  secretly  pleased 
at  the  misfortunes  of  the  English,  speedily  began  to 
barter  for  the  plunder,  and  Croghan,  himself  a  veteran 
trader,  must  have  been  chagrined  indeed  to  see  how  the 
price  of  a  pound  of  vermilion  rose  to  ten  half-johannes 
specie,  and  was  eagerly  purchased  by  the  Indians  with 
the  gold  and  silver  stolen  from  his  considerable  hoard.' 
In  spite  of  his  misfortune,  Croghan  noted  the  excellent 
situation  for  trade  at  Yincennes,  the  village  being  in  a 
fine  hunting  country,  and  the  distance  to  the  Illinois 
or  any  other  post  being  too  great  for  the  sedentary  Ind- 
ians to  journey  elsewhere  for  their  necessaries. 

Years  before  either  the  French  or  the  English  knew 
of  the  Ohio  by  that  name,  they  laid  down  on  their  maps 
the  Onabash  or  St.  Jerome,  rising  south  of  the  foot  of 
Lake  Erie  and  flowing  westward  into  the  Mississippi.' 
Father  Marest,  writing  from  Kaskaskia,  in  1712,  speaks 
of  the  "  Onabache  ''  as  a  river  of  three  branches,  one  ex- 

'  Tlie  jolinnnes  of  Portugal  of  18  dwt.  17  grs.  were  Viilued  at  £4  16«.; 
then  there  were  current  the  raoydore,  tlie  Caroline  of  Germany,  the 
guinea,  the  louis  d'or,  the  Spanish  or  French  pistole,  the  Seville, 
Mexico,  or  pillar  dollar,  the  French  crown  or  six-livre  piece,  the 
British  shillinii-,  and  the  pistereen.  The  dollar  was  reckoned  at  eight 
shillings.— See  Mich.  P.  &  H.  Col,  vol.  x.,  p.  214. 

'■^  I  have  before  me  a  map  of  North  America,  "according  to  the 
most  exact  observations,"  dedicated  to  John.  Lord  Sonimers,  presi- 
dent of  the  Privy  Council,  by  H«.Tnian  Moll.  Geographer,  1719,  in 
which  the  Ohio  appears  as  the  "  Onabash  now  R.  St.  .Jerome." 

165 


TIIH    NOUTllWKST    UNM)EIl    TIIUKE    FLAGS 

tending  as  far  as  the  Inujuois,  another  running  into 
Virginia  and  Carolina,  and  a  third  heading  among  the 
Miamis.  In  his  letter,  Father  Marest  mentions  the  fort 
lately  established  l)y  the  French  on  the  Wahash,  which 
came  to  be  known  as  ''  the  Post."  Some  time  about  the 
year  1732,  F^ran(;ois  Morgan  de  Vinsenne,  who  had  seen 
considerable  service  in  New  France,  was  sent  to  the 
post  on  the  Wabash.  There  he  quickly  acquired  land, 
and  by  his  mai'riage  to  the  daughter  of  M.  Philip  Long- 
prie,  of  Kaskaskia,  he  obtained  for  father  in-law  the 
wealthiest  citizen  of  that  place,  ^fadame  Vinsenne  was 
unable  to  write  her  own  name;  but  she  brought  to  her 
husband  a  dot  of  100  pistoles,  and,  at  her  father's  death 
in  1735,  408  pounds  of  pork  was  a  part  of  iier  in- 
heritance by  will.  It  is  possible  that  M.  de  Vinsenne 
was  killed  in  173*5  during  an  expedition  against  the 
Chickasaws,  but  not  before  he  had  given  his  own  name 
to  the  fort  at  which  he  was  the  onlv  commandant  of 
note  under  the  French  rule.  Indeed,  the  only  other 
name  connected  with  the  place  before  Croghan's  adveiit 
is  that  of  the  first  missionary,  Feather  Mirmet,  who  had 
been  sent  for  the  spiritual  edification  of  the  ancestors 
of  Croghan's  captors,  the  Mascoutins,  formerly  occu- 
pants of  the  region.' 

Dividing  booty  and  scalps  w^ith  the  French,  whose 
protection  they  sought,  the  Kickapoos  hurried  their 
captives  northward  through  a  region  where  no  wood 
w^as  to  be  seen,  the  country  appearing  like  an  ocean, 
with  waving  billows  of  wild  hemp.  After  a  journey  of 
two  hundred  and  ten  miles  from  Vincennes  thov  reach- 

« 

ed  Fort  Ouiatanon,^  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Wabash, 

'  Colonial  History  of  Vincennes,  by  Judge  John  Law  (Vincennes, 
1858),  p.  15  et  seq. 
^  Fort  Ouiatauon,  now  Lafayette,  Indiana,  was  built  about  1T31. 

166 


ENGLAXD    TAKKS    POSSESSION 

where  some  fourteen  French  families  weni  found  dwell- 
ing witliin  the  palisiules,  and  enjoying  a  hirge  and  prolit- 
able  tratiic  in  furs.  The  Indians  from  whom  the  post 
took  its  name  were  greatly  concerned  when  they  learned 
of  the  folly  of  the  Kickupoos,  in  so  yielding  to  the  wiles 
of  the  French  as  to  strike  a  British  embassy ;  and  when 
Croghan  received  from  St.  Ange  a  message  inviting  him 
to  visit  Fort  Chartres,  his  well-scared  captors  were  only 
too  glad  to  allow  their  prisoners  to  depart  in  pence.  On 
his  way  he  was  met  by  no  less  a  personage  than  the  Ot- 
tawa chief  Pontiac,  who  had  come  to  make  peace  with 
the  envoy  of  the  English. 
As  Pontiac  and  Croghan,'  subtlest  savage  and  most 

Shea  mentions  the  fact  that  Father  John  de  Saint  Pe  went  in  1721 
from  St.  Joseph  to  the  new  Fort  Oiiialanon. 

'  George  Croghan,  born  in  Irelaiul  and  schooled  in  Dublin,  had 
his  home  on  the  beautiful  banks  of  the  wide  Susquehanna,  near  the 
place  where  the  traveller  of  to-day  is  shunted  back  and  forth  from 
track  to  track  before  crossing  to  the  city  of  Harrisburg.  As  early  as 
1746  he  was  a  trader  on  Lake  Erie,  between  the  old  Indian  town  of 
Sandusky  and  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Cleveland.  His  success 
in  dealing  with  savages  led  Pennsylvania  to  appoint  him  Indian 
agent.  The  French  and  Indian  War  plunged  him  into  bankruptcy. 
It  appears  from  a  letter  addres.sed  by  Colonel  John  Carlyle  to  Wash- 
ington, on  June  17,  1754  (Hamilton's  Letters  to  Wdshinffton,  vol.  i., 
p.  5),  that  Croghan  had  agreed  to  furnish  the  army  with  50,000  lbs. 
of  flour  that  was  in  store,  when  he  had  but  a  small  fraction  of  the 
amount,  and  was,  according  to  Carlyle,  "not  a  man  of  the  truth." 
Under  Braddock  he  was  a  captain  ;  he  built  a  fort  at  Aughwick,  in 
Huntington  County  ;  and  when  Pennsylvania  treated  him  ill  he  be- 
came Sir  William  Johnson's  deputy.  In  fact,  he  became  a  second, 
though  a  much  smaller.  Sir  William,  so  essentially  similar  were  these 
two  sous  of  Erin.  Shrewd,  fair  in  their  dealings  with  the  Indians, 
inflexible  in  purpose  and  untiring  in  action,  they  served  well  their 
country,  while  at  the  same  time  they  made  very  handsome  profits  for 
themselves.  Croghan  had  met  Pontiac  in  1760,  and  had  formed  one 
of  the  circle  about  the  camp  -  fire  when  Robert  Rogers  was  instructing 
the  Ottawa  chief  in  the  art  of  war,  as  they  journeyed  to  receive  the 

167 


TIIFC    NOUTIIWKST    IN  DHL    'IlIllKK    lI.A(iS 

stahviirt  tnuler,  made  tlioir  way  tlirough  the  swanns 
of  now  awed  and  sul>inissive  sava<,n?s,  on  their  return  to 
the  tumble-down  Fort  Ouiatanon,  the  old  order  passed 
away,  giving  place  to  the  new.  For  nearly  a  century 
the  country  between  the  foot  of  Lake  Michit^an  and  the 
mouth  of  the  C)hio  had  been  the  pathway  of  the  French 
adventurer  on  his  way  to  the  lower  Mississippi,  and  also 
the  favorite  Held  of  labor  of  the  devoted  servants  of  the 
Cross.  There  the  intrepid  La  Salle,  the  faithful  Tonty, 
and  the  romantic  and  romancing  Hennepin  had  built 
the  monument  of  their  failure  in  the  pitiful  Foi't  Creve- 
cceur;  and  there  the  zealous  explorer-priest,  Mar([uetto. 
counting  it  more  gain  to  have  saved  a  perishing  soUi 
than  to  have  discovered  the  Mississippi,  had  contracted 
the  disease  that  cut  short  his  young  life. 

Fort  Chartres,  the  seat  of  govei'nment  for  the  Illinois 
country,  was  a  dependency  of  Kew  Orleans,  the  major- 
commandant  at  the  upper  post  being  connected  w^ith 
the  governor  of  the  province  often  by  ties  of  relation- 
ship, and  always  by  partnership  in  trade.  Thus  was 
realized  La  Sailers  plan  of  opening  a  Mississippi  channel 
for  the  fur-trade  of  the  prairies.  The  legitimate  profits 
of  the  trade   were  swelled  by  the  system  of  Indian 

surrender  of  Detroit.  In  1763  Croghan  was  wrecked  on  the  French 
coast,  while  on  his  way  to  England  to  give  information  to  the  Lords 
of  Trade  and  Plantations  respecting  tiie  Indian  boundary.  In  1766 
lie  settled  on  the  Alleghany,  and  two  years  later  he  acquired  118,000 
acres  of  land  in  New  York  State  ;  in  1770  he  entertained  Washington 
on  his  way  to  the  Kanawha ;  he  sided  with  Virginia  in  the  dispute 
as  to  the  boundary  between  that  State  and  Pennsylvania  ;  and  in  1775 
he  took  a  leading  part  in  the  beginnings  of  the  Revolution.  He  seems 
to  have  been  suspected,  however,  for  Congress  made  Colonel  Morgan 
Indian  agent  in  his  place,  and  he  was  required  to  prove  his  loyalty. 
This  he  was  able  to  do  ;  at  least  he  kept  possession  of  his  property. 
He  died  at  Passaynak,  Pennsylvania,  in  August,  1783.  The  Croghan 
who  becjime  famous  in  the  War  of  1812  was  his  nephew. 

168 


«v  i  ro.  fNG'-s.^.y. 


EVANSf?   MAI'   OF    TIIK    ILLINOIS  COUNTRY 


ENGLAXD    TAKES    TOSSESSION 

presents,  and  bv  license  fees  required  of  the  traders. 
Presents  to  the  Indians  came  from  the  king;  but  pi'es- 
ents  from  the  Indians  in  return  were  absorbed  bv  the 
commandant  and  his  partner,  the  governor;  and  if  any 
trader  presumed  to  traffic  without  a  license  from  Fort 
Chartres  he  held  his  goods  at  the  peril  alike  of  white 
man  and  of  red.  To  be  sure,  the  Illinois  Indians  were 
"  poor,  debauched,  and  dastardly,"  and  could  count  not 
more  than  three  hundred  and  fiftv  warriors;  but  the 
traffic  reached  to  surrounding  tribes  on  the  north  and 
west,  Jind  was  both  easy  of  access  and  of  considerable 
volume. 

Lest  this  lucrative  trade  should  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  English,  Kerlerec,  the  governor  at  Xew  Orleans,  had 
sent  forth  Pierre  Laclede  Liguest,  armed  with  extensive 
rights  of  trade  on  the  Missouri ;  and  in  the  x^j^ril  of 
1764  his  lieutenant,  Chouteau,  w^ith  thirty  others,  laid 
the  foundations  of  St.  Louis,  whither  the  French  of  tiie 
Illinois  flocked  in  order  to  escape  the  necessity  of  chang- 
inof  their  fla^:.  Farther  down  the  river  the  hamlet  of 
St.  Genevieve,  covering  the  approach  to  the  lead-mines 
that  supplied  the  country  with  shot,  also  built  itself  up 
at  the  expense  of  the  Illinois  tow^ns.  Indeed,  the  exodus 
of  the  French  threatened  to  depopulate  the  Illinois 
country.  At  Cahokia,  opposite  St.  Louis,  the  town  was 
deserted,  excepting  only  the  fine  mission -farm  of  St. 
S'llpice,  which,  with  its  thirty  slaves,  its  herd  of  cattle, 
and  its  mill  for  grinding  corn  and  sawing  planks,  had 
been  sold  to  a  thriftv  Frenchman  not  averse  to  becom- 
ing  an  English  subject.  The  fathers  returned  to  France. 
The  settlement  could  boast  of  no  more  than  fortv-five 
houses,  the  poorest  of  which  was  called  the  fort ;  and  so 
badly  selected  was  the  site  that  the  spring  freshets  tum- 
bled through  the  broken  palisades  and  overflowed  the 

169 


thp:  northwest  under  thrive  flags 

town.  At  St.  Philip,  between  Cahokia  and  Fort  Char- 
tres,  the  sixteen  houses  and  tlie  church  were  deserted  by 
all  but  the  captain  of  militia,  who  remained  with  his 
mill,  his  cattle,  and  his  twenty  slaves.  The  more  indus- 
trious and  prosperous  inhabitants  of  Prairie  du  Rocher, 
however,  stayed  by  their  wide  cornfields,  exhibiting  the 
proverbial  stability  of  those  who  build  their  house  upon 
a  rock. 

By  far  the  most  important  settlement  in  the  Illinois 
country  was  Kaskaskia,  where  there  was  at  this  time  a 
small  fort  destined  to  be  destroyed  by  fire  during  the 
ensuing  year  (1766)  and  to  be  replaced  in  1772  by  Fort 
Gage,  the  successor  of  Fort  Chartres.  The  sixty -five 
families  dwelt  in  houses  of  stone;  and  so  convenient  was 
the  natural  wharfage  that  heavy  bateaux  lay  with  their 
sides  to  the  bank,  ready  for  loading.  The  establish- 
ment that  gave  to  the  town  prosperity  and  name  — 
l^otre  Dame  de  Cascasquias— was  the  ^\  ell-tilled  Jesuit 
farm  of  two  hundred  and  forty  arpents ;  but  when  the 
command  went  forth  for  the  suppression  of  the  Jesuits, 
this  entire  property  was  sold,  Obtensibly  for  the  benefit 
of  the  crown,  to  M.  Beauvais,  the  richest  man  in  the 
Illinois  country.  Eighty  slaves  were  employed  either 
in  the  well-built  mill  that  ground  the  corn  and  wheat 
and  sawed  the  planks,  or  in  the  wealth-producing  brew- 
ery ;  and  in  one  season  the  opulent  proprietor  sold  the 
king  eighty -six  thousand  pounds  of  flour  without  part- 
ing wi^  Ix  more  than  a  portion  of  his  harvest. 

Fort  Chartres  itself  had  the  reputation  of  being  '^the 
most  commodious  and  best  built  fort  in  North  America" ; 
commodious  possibly  because  four  dungeons  were  in- 
cluded within  its  subterranean  depths;  well-built,  either 
because  its  walls  of  but  two  feet  and  two  inches  in  thick- 
ness were  plastered  over  to  present  a  smooth  surface, 

170 


ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION 

or  else  because  the  entrance  to  the  fortress  led  throufrh 
a  handsome  rustic  gate  —  a  touch  of  the  incongruous 
truly  French.  An  irregukir  quadrilateral,  with  a  length 
of  four  hundred  and  ninety  feet,  the  fort  was  partly  sur- 
rounded by  a  half-finished  ditch;  and  its  bastions  were 
supplied  with  more  port-holes  than  cannon.  The  town 
at  its  foot  had  once  boasted  as  many  as  forty  families, 
who  gathered  on  Sundays  and  saints'  days  at  the 
Church  of  St.  Ann,  where  a  Franciscan  father  shep- 
herded the  flock;  but  durino^  the  nine  years  since  the 
rebuilding  of  the  fort  in  1756,  a  more  relentless  enemy 
than  either  red -skin  or  red -coat  had  threatened  both 
town  and  fortress.  The  capricious  river,  then  as  now 
laughing  at  the  works  of  man,  had  eaten  away  so  much 
of  the  half  mile  of  land  between  fort  and  water  that 
scarcely  more  than  eighty  paces  remained ;  and  the 
French  families,  except  three  or  four  of  the  poorest 
ones,  had  crossed  to  the  other  shore.  Seyen  years  after 
Croffhan's  visit  the  British  \vere  forced  to  abandon  the 
fort,  whose  dungeons  were  occupied,  probably  for  the 
first  time,  by  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi.  Having 
accomplished  this  work  of  destruction  the  Father  of 
Eivers  withdrew  himself,  and  the  ruins  of  Fort  Chartres 
are  now  a  mile  inland.' 

While  many  of  the  well-established  French  remained 
to  await  the  coming  of  the  English,  and  numbers  of 
the  less  prosperous  transported  their  belongings  to  St. 
Louis  or  St.  Genevieve,  still  others  embarked  with  De 
Yilliere  to  swell  the  population  of  New  Orleans,  already 
a  city  of  some  six  or  seven  thousand  people.  Following 
them  had  gone  messengers  from  Pontiac  to  stir  up  the 


'  Captain  Philip  Pittmairs  PreMut  State  of  European  Settlements  on 
the  Mssissippi  (Londcu,  1770),  and  Wirisor*    Westward  Movement,  p.  26. 

171 


TIIK    NUirniWHST    UNDKU    T II  U  i:  K    FLACS 

river  Indians  to  oppose  the  English,  and  so  effective 
were  these  exhortations  that  tlie  expedition  of  ^lajor 
Loftus  was  turned  back  in  tiie  spring  of  17(>4,  and  that 
of  Captain  Pittniaii,  a  few  months  later,  met  no  better 
success  in  its  efforts  to  reach  the  lUinois  country.  Re- 
joiced by  these  triumphs  of  his  allies,  and  unwilling  to 
yield  so  long  as  a  single  spark  of  hope  remained,  Pontiac 
despatched  an  embassy  to  New  Orleans  imploring  and 
demanding  that  the  French  unite  with  their  ancient 
friends  the  Indians  to  drive  "the  red  dogs"  from  the 
land.  Death  spared  D'Abbadie  the  dire  necessity  of 
telling  the  Indians  that  from  their  fathers,  the  French, 
also  the  broad  lands  of  the  Western  continent  had  been 
taken  away  by  the  jiowers  over-seas;  and  that  even  the 
unknown  lands  beyond  the  Mississippi  had  passed  into 
the  possession  of  Spain.  From  Aubry,  the  successor  of 
D'Abbadie,  the  embass\'  received  the  message  that,  on 
being  delivered  to  Pontiac  during  the  March  of  1765, 
broke  the  spirit  of  the  persistent  Ottawa  chieftain,  and 
at  last  forced  him  to  the  resolution  of  making  peace 
with  dif^nitv. 

The  genuineness  of  Pontiac's  resolve  had  been  tested 
even  before  Croghan's  arrival.  Eager  to  forestall  any 
change  of  sentiment  on  the  ])art  of  the  Illinois  people, 
General  Gage  had  sent  ahead  Lieutenant  Eraser  with 
letters  to  St.  Ange  de  Belleri\e,  the  commandant  at 
Fort  Chartres.  Eraser  was  received  with  favor  by 
the  much  perturbed  Frenchman,  who  j(y fully  looked 
forward  to  a  relief  from  an  intolerable  situation,  where 
he  was  beset  on  one  side  bv  the  Indians  and  the  French 
traders  eager  to  make  war  on  the  English,  while  on  the 
other  hand  he  had  positive  orders  to  keep  the  peace 
until  a  Bi'itish  force  should  come  to  occupy  the  post. 
The  traders,  however,  roughly  used  the  young  lieuten- 


ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION 

ant,  and  in  the  drunken  commotion  that  occini'ed  he 
naiTOwh^  escaped  with  his  lil'e.  The  next  day,  how- 
ever, Pontiac  having  recoveied  the  use  of  his  reason, 
took  Fraser  under  liis  own  ])rotection.'  Croghan's  mis- 
sion to  the  Illinois  having  paved  the  way  lor  the  peace- 
ful occuj)ation  of  the  Britisli,  Captain  Sterling  ;ind  a 
hundred  lliglikinders  descended  the  Ohio;  and,  five 
years  after  the  surrender  of  Detroit,  on  October  10. 17r)5, 
St.  Ange  had  the  mournful  honor  and  ti.e  secret  I'elief  of 
hauling  down  tha  last  French  flag  in  the  Northwest. 

The  great  chief  Pontiac  might  indeed  make  way  for 
Croghan ;  but  his  own  dignity  demanded  that  his  sub- 
mission be  made  to  a  higher  power.  Accordingly  we 
find  him  at  Oswego  in  the  June  of  1700,  professing  to 
Sir  William  Johnson  that  he  had  taken  Colonel  Cro- 
ghan by  the  hand  and  had  never  let  go  his  hold,  because 
he  saw  that  the  Great  Spirit  would  have  him  a  friend  of 
the  English.  Returning  to  his  wives  and  children,  Pon- 
tiac settled  down  to  the  regular  life  of  the  Indian  on 
the  banks  of  the  Maumee.  In  April,  1709,  he  a]ipeared 
at  St.  Louis,  apparently  on  a  visit  of  fi'iendship  to  St. 
Ange.  One  day  he  crossed  to  Cahokia  to  join  in  an 
Indian  celebration ;  and  on  his  return  from  the  carousal 
he  was  tomahawked  by  an  Illinois  Indian,  who  had 
been  bribed  to  do  the  deed  bv  an  English  trader,  Wil- 
kinson  by  name,  the  payment  being  a  barrel  of  rum.^ 
St.  Ange,  readv  to  do  justice  to  the  memory  of  the 
greatest  among  Indians,  gave  his  body,  clad  in  the  full 

'  MicJiigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  vol.  x.,  p.  216. 

^  After  carefully  examining  the  various  conflicting  accounts  of 
Pontiac's  death,  preserved  among  the  Parkmau  MSS.,  I  have  fol- 
lowed Mr.  Parkrnan's  account,  in  spite  of  Winsor's  donhts.  Park- 
man  had  the  details  from  Lyman  C.  Draper,  who  obtained  them  from 
Col.  L.  V.  Bogy,  of  St.  Louis,  to  whom  Chouteau  relatea  them.  See 
also  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  August  17,  1769. 

173 


TIJE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

uniform  of  a  Fnmch  officer — a  gift  from  Montcalm  him- 
self—  a  military  burial  near  the  Council -house  at  St. 
Louis ;  and  there  the  forest  warrior  found  peace. 

Returning  now  to  George  Ci'oghan,  whom  we  left  at 
Fort  Ouiatanon,  we  find  him  ready  to  pusii  northward  to 
carry  to  his  principal  the  tidings  of  his  success.  Cross- 
ing to  the  Eel  Kiver,  he  came  to  the  village  of  the 
Twightwees,  on  the  river  St.  Joseph,  near  its  junction 
with  the  Miami.  The  hundred  Indian  cabins  were  sup- 
plemented by  nine  or  ten  huts  that  housed  a  runaway 
colony  from  Detroit,  Frenchmen  who,  having  been  con- 
cerned in  Pontiac's  war,  had  retired  to  this  place  to 
escape  the  just  punishment  of  evil-doing.  Then  drop- 
ping down  the  Miami  through  Ottawa  and  Wyandotte 
villages,  Croghan  came  to  Lake  Erie,  and  on  August 
10th,  after  a  journey  of  three  months,  he  reached  De- 
troit, where  he  passed  a  month  or  more  in  holding 
satisfactory  conferences  with  the  Indians.  Then,  hav- 
ing traversed  a  very  considerable  portion  of  the  new 
possessions  of  the  English,  he  set  out  for  Niagara. 

Great  issues  were  depending  on  George  Croghan's 
voyage  down  the  Ohio.  We  have  seen  that  Colonel 
Bouquet  was  convinced  that  the  Ohio  country  should 
be  organized  as  a  separate  colony.  This  obvious  con- 
clusion was  also  reached  by  others  conversant  with  the 
situation;  notably  by  Sir  William  Johnson,  who  had 
taken  a  keen  interes  in  Bouquet's  expedition  and  wdio 
had  despatched  Croghan  to  make  peace  with  the  remote 
tribes  of  the  Illinois.  Thus  it  happened  that  w^hile  the 
deputy  Indian  agent  was  making  his  explorations,  a 
strong  company  was  organizing  to  obtain  the  control 
of  the  territory  lying  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the 
Ohio,  with  the  purpose  of  beginning  there  a  new  gov- 
ernment.    On   this  side  of  the   Atlantic  the  leading 

174 


EXGLAXI)    TAKES    I'OSSESSION 

spirits  in  the  scheme  were  Sir  WiUiam  Johnson  and 
Governor  Franklin,  of  New  Jersey.  The  head  of  the 
company,  ho\veyer,  was  Thomas  Walpole,  a  London 
banker;  and  its  most  active  promoter  was  Benjamin 
Franklin,  who  had  returned  to  London  as  the  agent  of 
Pennsylvania.  When  the  matter  was  mentioned  to 
P'ranklin  he  wrote  home  to  his  son,  the  governor:  "I 
like  the  project  of  a  colony  in  the  Illinois  count' y,  and 
will  forward  it  to  my  utmost  here." 

Two  thinf^^s  were  necessary  to  the  success  of  the  enter- 
prise:  first,  a  grant  must  be  obtained  from  the  crown; 
and,  secondly,  the  Indians  must  be  prevailed  upon  to 
relinquish  their  title  as  occupants  of  the  lands.  The 
plan  for  the  new  colony  was  drawn  by  Sir  William 
Johnson,  and  Franklin  placed  it  before  the  king  in 
council.  In  order  to  strengthen  the  position,  a  few 
persons  of  influence  were  taken  into  the  company. 
Franklin  won  a  reluctant  approval  from  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  but  found  a  strenuous  opponent  in  Lord  Hills- 
borough, who  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  and  Plantations.  The  latter  was  very  much 
afraid  that  if  the  Ohio  lands  should  be  opened  to  set- 
tlement, all  Ireland  would  resort  thither — a  very  rea- 
sonable apprehension,  considering  the  fact  that  the 
Scotch-Irish  already  peopled  the  frontiers.  Then,  too, 
colonies  remote  from  the  sea -coast  would  force  the 
people  into  manufactures,  to  the  detriment  of  English 
trade.  Moreover,  distant  posts  meant  enormous  crown 
expenses;  and  Indian  superintendency  had  already  be- 
come so  expensive  that  a  return  to  the  colonial  man- 
agement of  Indian  affairs  was  seriously  contemplated 
as  a  means  of  relieving  the  nation  of  so  vast  an  outla3\* 


*  "  I  was  again  at  Lord  Shelburne's  a  few  days  since,  and  said  a  good 

175 


TlIK     NORTHWEST    UNDKK    TIIKKE    KLAG8 

Besides  all  else,  a  new  colony  beyoiul  the  mountains 
might  prove  too  independent  of  the  home  government, 
and  so  foment  independence  in  the  other  colonies. 

Croghan's  journal  and  Sir  William's  letters  were  used 
with  good  effect;  and  to  obtain  still  greater  weight  for 
the  plan,  General  Lyman,  who  was  urging  the  re- 
newal of  the  grant  to  the  old  Ohio  Company,  was  in- 
duced to  unite  his  forces  with  those  championing  the 
AValpole  grant.  In  case  the  superintendencies  should 
be  abolished.  Sir  William  was  to  be  provided  for  by 
making  him  governor  of  the  new  colony.  Then,  too, 
in  order  to  clear  awav  the  Indian  title,  Franklin  had 
instructions  sent  to  Sir  William  to  enter  into  a  treaty 
with  the  savages.  To  accomplish  this  much  required 
two  years.' 

Sir  William  Johnson  was  eager  enough  to  conclude 
the  Indian  boundar3\  Indeed,  either  he  or  his  friends 
had  urged  Franklin  to  procure  orders  for  the  settlement 
of  this  vexed  question;  for,  without  orders,  Sir  William 
could  not  charge  up  to  the  crown  the  goods  and  pro- 
visions with  which  this  thrifty  trader  supplied  the  Ind- 
ians in  council.  It  is  not  necessary  to  seek  private 
motives  for  Sir  William's  haste;  the  Indian  situation 

deal  to  him  on  the  affair  of  the  Illinois  settlement.  He  was  pleased  to 
say  he  really  approved  of  it;  but  intimated  that  every  new  proposed 
expense  for  America  would  meet  with  great  ditSculty  here,  the  treas- 
ur}'  being  alarmed  and  astonished  at  the  growing  charges  there,  and 
the  heavy  accounts  and  drafts  continually  brought  in  from  thence. 
Tiiat  Major  Farmer,  for  inrvi.;  '^e,  had  lately  drawn  for  no  less  than 
£30,000  extraordinary  char  .os.  on  his  going  to  take  possession  of  the 
Illinois  ;  and  that  the  supCi  nitendents.  particularly  the  southern  one, 
began  also  to  draw  very  largely.  He  spoke,  however,  verj'  hand- 
somely of  Sir  William  on  many  accounts." — Franklin  to  his  son, 
Sparks's  Franklin,  vol.  iv.,  p.  236. 

'  Franklin's  correspondence  with  his  son,  in  regard  to  the  Walpole 
grant,  begins  in  March,  1766,  and  ends  in  March,  1768. 

176 


ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION 

niaik'  the  settlement  of  bomidiuies  iin[)erative.  At  the 
Congress  hehl  i\t  the  Geruian  Flats  in  1705  the  Six  Na- 
tions had  olfered  to  part  with  their  title  to  all  their 
lands  east  of  the  Ohio;  but  this  olTer  had  been  ne^^- 
lected.  The  Indians  resented  the  delay,  and  especially 
resented  the  lack  of  presents  and  supplies.  A  great 
gathering  of  Delawares  and  Senecas  was  held  in  the 
Shawanese  country  on  the  Scioto  in  March  of  that 
year;  and  English  traders  on  the  Ohio  had  their  ba- 
teaux stopped  and  the  ammunition,  scalping-knives,  and 
tomahawks  stolen.  Pennsylvania,  taking  alarm  at  these 
unmistakable  signs  of  an  Indian  uprising,  voted  £2500 
to  be  used  by  Sir  William  in  gifts  to  those  savages  who 
had  lost  relatives  in  border  warfare.  The  astute  super- 
intendent accepted  the  appropriation,  with  the  remark 
thai  **good  laws  vigorously  enforced  are  the  best  guar- 
antee ao:ainst  Indian  resentment."  ' 

During  the  winter  of  1767-68  the  newspapers  had  been 
full  of  reports  of  the  fertility  of  the  Ohio  valley;  and 
from  the  frontiersmen  the  Indians  quickly  learned  about 
the  projects  to  form  new  settlements  in  that  region.  The 
Six  Xations  complained  that  when  they  went  to  hunt  in 
their  own  land  it  wearied  them  to  climb  the  fences  of 
the  white  men ;  and  that  there  were  neither  deer  to 
shoot  nor  trees  to  furnish  bark  for  their  huts.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1768,  however,  Sir  William  received  his  belated 
orders  to  perfect  the  boundary;  and  as  a  preliminary 
thereto  he  accommodated  the  troubles  between  the  Chero- 
kees  and  the  Six  Xations,  using  Pennsylvania's  appro- 
priation for  the  purpose.  At  this  time  the  Six  Nations 
claimed  the  lands  between  the  Ohio  and  the  AUeghanies, 
by  virtue  of  their  conquests  over  the  tribes  resorting  to 

^  Stone's  Ltfe  of  Sir  Willium  Johnson,  vol.  ii.,  p.  296. 
H  177 


THE    NOirniWKST    UNDER    TllUEE    FLAGS 

those  regions.  Indeed,  the  chiiins  of  the  Iroquois  Con- 
federacy included  the  wliole  territory  westward  from 
New  York  to  the  Mississippi;  but  whatever  may  have 
been  their  conquests  in  the  past,  it  is  certain  that  at  this 
time  the  Western  Confederacy  was  scarcely  less  strong 
than  the  Eastern;  and  that  the  tribes  occupying  the 
lands  northwest  of  the  Ohio  admitted  no  control  what- 
ever on  the  part  of  their  ancient  conquerors,  the  Iroquois, 
alth()U":h  thev  met  with  them  in  council.  As  to  the 
lands  south  of  the  Ohio,  the  case  was  dilFerent.  That 
region  was  in  the  possession  of  no  one  tribe,  but  was  the 
hunting-grounds  of  many  tribes — "  the  dark  and  bloody 
ground''  where  savage  fought  with  savage  after  the 
manner  of  their  kind. 

It  was  fitting  that  the  treaty  for  the  transfer  of  title 
to  this  region  should  take  place  in  the  country  of  the 
Iroquois,  the  traditional  friends  and  allies  of  the  English, 
and  that  it  should  be  conducted  by  Sir  William  Johnson. 
At  Fort  Orange,  on  July  21,  ir)01,  a  little  band  of  Dutch 
immigrants  led  by  Arendt  Van  Curler,  a  cousin  of  the 
absentee  Patroon  Van  Rensselaer,  purchased  from  the 
Mohawk  chiefs  the  site  of  an  old  Indian  village.  Early 
the  next  spring  they  settled  on  this  site,  and  for  a  time 
the  place  was  known  as  Corker;  but  after  the  Eng- 
lish conquest  the  old  Indian  name  of  Schenectady  was 
adopted.  Freed  from  the  trammels  of  feudalism,  these 
settlers  held  their  lands  in  fee-simple;  and,  after  a  pro- 
Ion  o^ed  struororle  aorainst  both  the  colon v  and  the  manor 
restrictive  policy,  they  established  for  tiiemselves,  in  1727, 
freedom  to  trade  with  the  Indians.  Through  the  open 
door  of  Schenectady  poured  a  flood  of  German  immigra- 
tion from  the  Rhine  valley  —  a  vigorous,  liberty -loving 
people,  who  proved  extremely  troublesome  to  the  church- 

and- state  powders  that  were  in  control  in  the  colony. 

178 


EXGLAXD    TAKKS    IM)  SS  KSS  I  O  X 

In  the  yeiir  1738,  Williiim  .lohiisoii,  a  young  Irishman 
from  County  Meath,  made  his  way  to  the  banks  of  the 
Mohawk  as  the  agent  of  his  uncle,  Captain  Peter  Warren, 
R.  N.J  who  was  the  possessor  of  some  tifteen  thousand 
acres  of  wildern<jss.  Voung  Johnson  speedily  placud 
settlers  on  the  lands,  opened  a  country  store,  began 
to  clear  his  own  farm,  and  married  the  daughter  of  a 
German  settler.  lie  never  lied  to,  cheated,  or  deceived 
an  Indian;  and  he  never  granted  to  a  savage  what  he 
had  once  refused.  This  rule,  early  ado[)ted,  gave  him 
an  ever- increasing  influence  with  the  Indians,  and  en- 
abled him  to  build  uj)  a  trade  that  took  his  agents  to  the 
remote  tribes  from  the  St.  Lawrence  wellnigii  to  the 
Mississippi,  and  gave  him  commercial  coimections  in 
London  and  the  West  Indies  as  well  as  in  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  cities.  The  policy  of  Van  Curler  and  Peter 
Schuyler  in  dealing  with  the  Iroquois  was  adopted  by 
Johnson;  he  talked  with  them  in  their  own  language, 
and  in  no  punctilio  of  savage  etiquette  was  he  wanting. 
The  ready  words  inspired  by  the  Blarney-stone  with  him 
took  the  form  of  trope  and  metaphor  drawn  from  those 
powers  of  nature  so  dear  to  the  Indian  mind.  On  the 
death  of  his  wife  he  took  for  his  companion  a  sister  of 
that  Joseph  Brant  whose  nauK*  l)ecame  a  terror  to  Amer- 
ican patriots  of  the  Kevolution;  and  by  the  Indian  alli- 
ance as  well  as  by  his  adoption  into  the  Mohawk  tribe 
he  confirmed  his  power  over  the  savages. 

At  the  All)any  conference  of  174H,  Johnson,  hideous 
in  the  war-paint  and  feathers  of  his  tribe,  led  the  Mohawk 
band;  in  the  old  French  War  he  had  command  of  the 
frontier,  with  the  rank  of  colonel;  in  1750  he  took  his 
seat  in  the  governors  council,  and  with  that  represent- 
ative of  royalty  made  a  stand  for  prerogative  as  against 
the  growing  power  of  the  assembly.     At  the  celebrated 

179 


TIIK    N(H:Tn\VKST    rXDKK    TIIKKK    Fr.AGS 

Albanv  r^)n<n'08s  in  1754,  tlio  fonM'iinner  of  tlic  R«'\'<>1m- 
tioniiiy  Congress,  .lolinson  tooU  i\n)  load  in  thoso  deal- 
ings of  the  nine  colonies  with  the  Irofjuois  which  attach- 
ed the  Six  Nations  to  the  canse  of  the  English  in  the 
struggle  for  the  Olno  valley;  and  thus  he  paved  the  way 
for  his  appointment  by  Bradilock  as  supeiintendent  of 
Indian  affairs.  In  the  Seven  Vears'  War  Johnson  bv 
his  military  successes,  particularly  at  Niagara,  had  in- 
creased his  prestige  with  the  hoTne  government;  and 
in  all  Indian  matters  he  was  easilv  the  first  man  in 
America. 

By  September,  1768,  all  w\as  pre[)ared  for  the  council 
that  was  to  move  the  boundary  westward  from  the  Al- 
leghanies  to  the  Oiiio.  Fort  Stanwix,  on  the  present 
site  of  Rome,  New  York,  was  the  gathering- place,  and 
thither  repaired  Sir  William,  attended  l)y  his  three  dep- 
uties, George  Croghan,  Daniel  Claus,  and  Guy  John- 
son. Governor  Franklin  of  New  Jersey,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Penn,  and  commissioners  from  Pennsvlvania 
and  Virginia  also  w^ere  in  attendance.  The  Indians  were 
slow  in  arriving,  the  Senecas  having  been  detained  by 
the  death  of  a  sachem,  and  the  Delawares  and  Sliawanese 
having  dallied  with  belts  and  promises  from  the  French 
and  Spanish  of  the  Mississippi.  On  September  24th,  Sir 
William's  deputies  reported  thirty-two  hundred  Indians 
in  attendance,  and  the  council  began  with  the  usual 
ceremonies.  For  six  days  the  Indians  pondered  the  |)i*op- 
osition  to  buy  their  lands,  and  on  the  seventh  day  the}'' 
assented,  but  not  without  many  promises  and  presents 
to  the  influential  sachems.  For  six  thousand  dollars  in 
money  and  goods  the  Indian  title  to  Kentucky,  West 
Virginia,  and  the  western  portion  of  Pennsylvania  was 
acquired  by  the  crown.  Thus  was  the  way  opened  for 
a  new  colony  beyond  the  Alleghanies. 

180 


EN(JLA\I)    TAKES    POSSESSION 

In  his  trejity  Sir  William  had  oxcecdcd  his  instruc- 
tions. Lord  Hillsborough  liad  sent  to  him  a  map  of  the 
boundaries  he  proposed.  Tliese  stopjK'd  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Gn^at  Kanawha  instead  of  the  Tennessee;  but 
Sir  William  preferred  to  ol^'ud  Lord  Hillsborough  in 
England  rather  than  to  incur  the  anger  of  the  ever- 
present  Six  Nations,  who  insisted  on  parting  with  the 
larger  territory  in  order  to  show  their  authority  over 
lands  claimed  also  by  the  riieroUees.  Had  the  more 
restricted  boundary  been  adopted,  mortal  offence  would 
have  been  given  to  the  northern  Indians,  who  claimed 
to  have  conquered  all  the  lands  to  the  Mississippi. 
In  vain  Lord  Hillsborough  referred  the  matter  back 
for  adjustment  in  accordance  with  his  ideas.  Sir  Will- 
iam professed  himself  earnest  to  cede  back  to  the  Ind- 
ians a  portion  of  the  grant.  They  would  not  haye 
it  so. 

For  tw^o  years  more  the  Illinois  project  lay  dormant; 
but  on  May  25,  1770,  the  council  sent  Walpole's  peti- 
tion to  the  Board  of  Trade.  The  Lords  Commissioners, 
after  two  more  years  of  delay,  reported  against  the 
proposition.  The  report,  drawn  by  Lord  Hillsborough, 
after  reciting  that  portions  of  the  proposed  grant  were 
in  the  colony  of  Virginia,  and  other  portions  were  Ind- 
ian hunting-grounds,  reminded  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury 
*'of  that  principle  which  was  adopted  by  this  Board,  and 
approved  and  confirmed  by  his  Majest3%  immediately 
after  the  treaty  of  Paris — viz.,  the  confining  the  western 
extent  of  settlements  to  such  a  distance  from  the  ^ea- 
coast  as  that  those  settlements  should  lie  within  reach 
of  the  trade  and  commerce  of  this  kingdom,  upon  which 
the  strength  and  riches  of  it  depend,  and  also  of  the  ex- 
ercise of  that  authority  and  jurisdiction  which  was  con- 
ceived to  be  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  colo- 

181 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

nies  in  a  clue  subordination  to,  md  dependence  upon,  the 
inother-countrv." ' 

Franklin  toyed  with  J.ord  Hillsborough's  adverse  re- 
port in  much  tlie  same  manner  tliat  a  cat  plays  with  a 
mouse.  He  corrected  its  geography  and  its  history  ;  he 
controverted  its  arguments;  and  he  proved  to  the  satis- 
faction oF  the  kiuf!^  in  council  that  the  royal  heart  had 
never  been  so  cold  and  sellish  as  tlie  Lords  Commission- 
ers for  Trade  and  Plantations  would  have  his  Majesty 
believe  it  was  in  17^)3,  when,  it  was  alleged,  he  would 
liave  confined  his  loving  subjects  in  America  to  the 
hinds  east  of  the  Alleglianies.  The  grant  to  the  Ohio 
Company  proved  that  settlements  to  the  westward 
were  contemplated,  and  the  restrictions  of  17r>3  were 
but  temporary,  until  the  lands  should  be  purchased 
from  the  Indians.  This  purchase  had  been  made  by  the 
treaty  of  Fort  Staiiwix,  and  Pennsylvania,  by  virtue 
of  that  treaty,  had  already  erected  Bedford  County 
from  territory  beyond  the  mountains,  and  was  exercis- 
infj  civil  government  therein.' 

Franklin's  argument  was  unanswerable.  The  offer 
of  the  company  was  to  repay  to  the  crow;,  tlit  £10,460 
7s.  dd.,  which  was  all  the  money  the  wh^  d  coiUiory  (of 
which  the  Walpole  grant  was  only  a  part)  cost  the  gov- 
ernment ;  in  addition  quit-rents,  to  begin  twenty  years 
after  the  survey  of  each  lot  or  plantation,  were  to  be 
paid  to  the  Icing's  agent.  The  expense^  of  civil  gov- 
ernment we^'e  to  be  borne  by  the  proprietors.  This 
offer  was  accepted,  and  on  August  14,  1772,  the  Wal- 
pole  grant   was  approved.      Lord   Hillsborough,  cha- 

'  Sparks's  Fj'anklin,  vol.  iv.,  p.  305. 

'^  Sparks  gives  the  report  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  Franklin's  reply, 
and  the  proclamation  of  1763,  See  FirnikUn's  Woj'ks,  vol.  iv.,  pp. 
302-380. 

182 


EiNGLA.ND    TxVKES    TOSSESSION 

grilled  and  humiliated  at  Franklin's  triumph,  oii'ered  his 
resignation,  as  perhaps  his  colleagues  expected  he  would 
do;  and,  mucii  to  his  surprise,  he  promptly  found  him- 
self out  of  oiHce.  He  was  succeeded  by  Lord  JJart- 
moutli,  reputed  to  be  a  friend  of  the  colonies. 

Rumors  of  the  proposed  new  colony  -^r  Vandalia  were 
rife  in  Virginia,  and  George  Washington  was  ill  pleased 
with  a  sclieme  which  seemed  likely  to  prevent  him  from 
locating  the  twenty-five  thousand  acres  that  were  due 
to  him  for  services  rendered  in  the  French  war;  nor 
was  he  satisiied  with  the  coalition  made  by  the  agent 
of  the  Ohio  ^  ot^h  ,y  and  the  promoters  of  the  Wal- 
pole  grant.'  As  i>  h;.];/  >ened,  however,  an  especial  res- 
ervation was  mado  ?n  '.*  t  grant  in  favor  of  the  bounty 
lands  provided  for  in  the  proclamation  of  1763,  so  that 
Washington's  individual  claims  were  interfered  with  in 
nowise. 

Bouquet,  and  after  hira  Gage,  saw  the  military  ad- 
vantage of  interposing  a  strong  government  between 
the  seaboard  colonies  and  the  Indians.  Sir  AVilliam 
Johnson,  th  Franklins  ( father  and  son),  the  restless, 
enterprising,  and  well-informed  Pownall,  who  had  car- 
ried back  to  England  a  wide  knowledge  of  America, 
and  such  influential  merchants  as  Walpole,  all  recog- 
nized the  commercial  advantages  of  a  proprietary  prov- 
ince on  th?  Ohio ;  but  the  day  for  new  royal  colonies  in 
America  had  parsed,  'x '  e  Walpole  grant,  like  the  Ohio 
Company's  concession,  was  doomed  to  failure.  Nor  was 
there  the  slightest  hope  of  success,  either  in  the  king's 

^  The  basis  of  combination  was  that  the  members  of  the  Ohio  Com- 
pany n-ere  to  receive  two  shares,  or  one  thirty -sixth,  of  "he  stock  of 
AValpole's,  or  the  Grand  Company,  as  it  was  called.  These  te^ms 
were  never  approved  by  the  Ohio  Company;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
neither  the  Oh  o  nor  the  Walpole  grant  was  ever  completed. 

183 


THE    NOinUWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

cabinet  or  in  America,  for  the  ^Mississippi  Company '  or 
any  other  of  the  numerous  associations  formed  for  the 
purpose  of  acquiring  lands  from  the  Indians  and  plant- 
ing tliereon  settlers  subject  to  quit-rents,  religious  estab- 
lishments, and  governments  privately  supported. 

That  numerous,  hardy,  independent,  and  often  lawless 
population  which  had  occupied  the  frontiers  of  Virginia 
was  now  read}'-  to  push  westward,  and,  in  the  wilderness 
south  of  the  Ohio,  to  make  homes  for  their  children. 
They  went  first  as  hunters,  then  as  prospectors,  and 
finally  as  settlers.  They  purchased  lands  with  bullets, 
and  surveyed  claims  with  tomahawks.  As  Virginians 
they  built  their  cabins  within  the  original  boundaries  of 
tlieir  own  colony,  and  to  their  colony  they  looked  for 
protection.  Singly  or  in  groups  these  adventurous 
backwoodsmen  hunted  big  game,  set  up  "tomahawk 
claims,"  cleared  fields,  built  cabins,  and  began  to  people 
the  wilderness.  Even  Washington,  with  land  claims 
purchased  by  his  valor,  was  unable  to  make  headway 
against  this  swarming  of  new  people  into  new  lands. 

In  the  autumn  of  1770,  when  Washington,  piloted  by 
George  Croghan  and  accompanied  by  his  surveyor 
Crawford,  descended  the  Ohio  to  the  Kanawha,  the 
lonely  banks  of  the  beautiful  river  gave  no  indications 
that  soon  a  mighty  human  stream  would  uow^  down 

'  A  copy  of  the  articles  of  association  of  the  Mississippi  Company 
was  recently  discovered  among  the  manuscripts  in  the  Library  of 
Congress,  by  Mr.  Herbert  Friedenwald.  It  covers  three  large  pages 
closely  written  by  George  Washington,  and  is  dated  June  3,  1763. 
The  first  name  is  that  of  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee,  the  next  is  John  Au- 
gustine Washington,  and  among  tiie  nineteen  are  the  names  of  Rich- 
ard Henry  Lee,  Henry  Fitzhugb,  and  TLjmas  Bullitt,  the  latter  being 
one  of  the  earliest  settlers  of  Kentucky,  Washington's  name  stands 
at  the  end.  The  company  was  organized  to  send  an  agent  to  England 
to  obtain  a  grant  of  lands  on  the  Mississippi  and  its  waters. 

lai 


DA  NIK  I,    liOONK 


(Irom  a  |.;i;iitiiig  hy  Cli.-stor  H;ir.lin£r.  c.uti,-,|  by  \v.  H.  Kmg.  Chicago.     I'botograpliod 

by  C.  I..  M.M.if.  S|.i:iiuli«'l.l.  Mass.) 


EXGLAXD    TAKES    TOSSESSIOX 

that  winding  course.  Yet  in  th(»  previous  year  Daniel 
and  Squire  Boone,  with  a  party  of  hunters,  iiad  started 
to  explore  the  Kentucky  wikierness;  and  during  the 
year  1773  the  blue-grass  country  was  crossed  by  many 
a  bold  home-seeker  like  Simon  Kenton  and  the  three 
brothers  McAfee,  who  had  taken  life  in  hand  while 
venturing  into  the  favorite  hunting-grounds  of  savjiges 
eager  for  scalps.  In  September,  1773,  Daniel  Boone  led 
Jiis  own  family,  with  five  other  families  and  forty  fron- 
tiersmen, from  the  Yadkin  over  the  mountains,  with  the 
intention  of  settlino^  in  K  ^i  tuck  v.  Attacked  bv  Indians, 
they  made  a  resting-place  on  the  Clinch  Eiver.  In  April, 
1744,  Floyd,  with  a  party  of  surve3'ors,  began  to  survey 
military  lands  on  the  Kanawha  for  Patrick  Henry  and 
Washington.  While  voyaging  down  the  Ohio  on  their 
way  to  Kentucky,  they  were  overtaken  by  a  messenger 
sent  from  Fort  Pitt  to  warn  them  that  they  were  in  dan- 
ger of  being  cut  off  by  an  Indian  war.' 

P>esides  the  Kentucky  explorers,  who  had  crossed  the 
mountains,  a  considerable  number  of  Virginians  had 
settled  along  tlie  Ohio  below  Fort  Pitt,  thereby  en- 
croaching on  the  lands  of  the  Dela wares  and  Shawa- 
nese.  At  this  time  Pittsburg  was  a  Virginia  town, 
although  Pennsylvania  claimed  the  territory.  The 
royal  gov^ernor  of  Virginia,  Lord  Dun  more,  now  found 
himself  in  a  perplexing  situation.  The  Walpole  grant 
threatened  to  carve  a  new  province  out  of  the  colony  of 

'  In  1747  Dr.  "Walker,  of  Virginia,  led  an  exploring  party  through 
northeasieru  Kentucky,  and  named  the  Cumberhind  River  for  "the 
Bloody  Duke";  and  in  1767  John  Finley,  of  North  Carolina,  made  a 
visit  to  the  same  region.  Finley  was  one  of  Boone's  party  of  1769, 
For  the  details  of  Boone's  trip,  see  Filson's  Boone  and  Mann  Butler's 
Kentucky.  There  are  no  more  fascinating  chapters  in  Roosevelt's 
Wifviing  of  the  West  than  those  in  the  first  volume  which  relate  to  the 
settlement  of  Kentucky. 

185 


TJIE     NOIITIIWEST    U  \  D  E  R    THREE    FLAGS 

which  he  was  govcM-noi  ;  tlie  Pennsylvania  traders  and 
the  adherents  of  Lord  Dunniore's  representative,  Dr. 
ConoUy,  had  ahnost  come  to  blows  over  the  possession 
of  the  forks  of  the  Ohio ;  and  the  Virginia  settlers  in 
the  western  country  were  clamoi'ing  for  aid  against  Ind- 
ian attacks.* 

Besides  the  threatened  encroachments  on  the  territoi'y 
of  Virginia,  Lord  Dunmoro,  in  common  with  his  fellow 
royal  governors,  was  called  upon  to  face  the  steady, 
persistent,  determined  opposition  of  the  responsible 
men  of  his  colony  to  the  peculiar  measures  by  which 
Great  Britain  was  undertakino^  to  brin^^  America  into 
subjection.  Nine  years  had  passed  since  that  May  day 
in  1765  when  Patrick  Henry  dared  to  set  up  the  two- 
sided  shield  of  treason  and  independence.  The  stamp 
act  had  been  passed  and  repealed;  non-intercourse  reso- 
lutions, offered  by  the  conservative  Washington,  had 
been  adopted ;  and  already,  b^  ihe  effective  methods  of 
the  committees  of  correspondence,  colonists  were  being 
transformed  into  Americans.  Boston,  no  longer  a  far- 
off  towm  of  mere  traders,  had  become  to  Virginians  a 
martvr  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  her  citizens  were 
indeed   brothers  in  adversitv.     The  suave  Lord  Bote- 

'  The  Indians  slew  the  Virginians  because  they  came  as  settlers, 

but  spared  the  Pennsylvania  traders.     The  tale  of  Indian  robberies 

and  massacres  is  far  too  long  to  tell,     Lyman  C.  Draper,  certainly  a 

good  authority,  estimates  that  during  the  ten  years  of  so-called  peace 

t^  "owed  Bouquet's  expedition,  more  lives  were  sacrificed  along 

rn  frontiers  than  during  the  whole  outbreak  of  1774,  includ- 

attle  of  Point  Pleasant. — Brautz  Mayer's  Tali-Gah-Jiite  ;  or, 

I  Cresap  (Albany,  1867),  p.  67. 

■»        unmore,  before  he  could  possibly  have  i*    3wn  of  the  Great- 

»        I'ders,  had  issued  (April  25,  1774)  a  proclamation  referring 

I  ..''ittsburg  territorial  troubles,  and  calling  out  the  militia  to 

1  y  i^ssault  whatever,  thus  showing  that  he  proposed  to  sustain 

Di         ^olly  no  less  than  to  chastise  the  savages. 

186 


ENGLAND    TAKES    rOSSESSION 

tourt  had  indeed  kept  the  tire  from  breakin^^  throuf^h 
the  roof,  but  his  successor  in  office,  the  impulsive  Earl 
of  Dun  more,  found  that  the  grave  and  courtly  Virgin- 
ians, while  punctiliously  courteous  to  himself  and  his 
attractive  family,  fasted  and  prayed  to  be  delivered 
from  the  tyranny  whose  agent  and  exemplar  he  was.' 

Add  to  all  these  troubles  the  circumstance  that  Lord 
Dunmore  \vas  anxious  to  obtain  ^or  himself  a  share  in 
the  rich  domain  that  was  awaiting  the  settler's  axe,  and 
one  has  a  sufficient  number  of  reasons  why  the  chief 
magistrate  of  Virginia  might  well  feel  that  it  would  be 
a  capital  stroke  to  use  Pittsburg  as  the  headquarters  for 
a  Virginia  military  expedition  which  should  confirm  the 
title  of  his  colony  not  only  to  that  important  post,  but 
also  to  the  entire  Ohio  country,  while  at  the  same  time 
attention  might  be  diverted  from  English  troubles,  a 
patriotic  sentimont  on  behalf  of  the  border  settlers 
might  be  aroused,  and  an  opportunity  provided  to  ob- 
tain from  vhe  Indians  extensive  lands  in  the  Illinois 
country.' 

'  Wa8biiigton  weut  from  a  meeting  at  tlie  Raleigh  Tavern,  where 
the  Boston  bill  was  denounced,  to  uiue  with  Lord  Dunmore  ;  next  day 
the  two  rode  together,  and  in  the  evening  Washington  attended  her 
ladyship's  ball;  but  on  the  day  of  fasling,  humiliation,  and  praj^er, 
he  fasted  and  attended  the  appointed  services.  See  Lodge's  Washing- 
ton, vol.  i.,  p.  119. 

''It  appears  from  Chief -justice  Marshall's  decision  in  Johr.ion  r. 
Mcintosh  {S}V/ieato?i),  that  on  Jul}:  5^  1773^  a  large  portion  of  the  Illi- 
nois country  lying  on  the  Mississippi  was  purchased  at  an  Indian 
council  held  at  Kaskaskia,  by  a  company  of  London,  Pennsylvania, 
and  Illinois  people;  and  on  October  18.  1775,  the  principal  persons  in 
the  first  purchase  were  associated  with  Lord  Dunmore  and  Honorable 
John  Murray,  his  son,  in  two  grants  on  the  Wabash  near  Vincennes. 
The  title  ran  lO  the  purchasers,  or  to  the  King  of  England  for  their 
benefit,  and  the  lands  were  described  as  being  within  the  chartered 
limits  of  Virginia.  After  the  Revolution  the  assigns  of  the  original 
grantees  undertook  to  establish  claim  to  the  lands  in  question;  but 

187 


THE    XOliTIlWEST    UNDEU    TllliEE    FLAGS 

The  particular  occasion  for  the  Indian  war  of  1774 
was  an  attack  made  by  some  thieving  Cherokees,  one 
April  night,  on  three  of  trader  Butler's  men.  Dr.  Con- 
olI\%as  the  representative  o*"  Virginia,  immediately  called 
on  the  frontiersmen  to  hold  themselves  ready  to  repel 
an  attack  of  hostile  Shawanese.  Among  those  who 
jufnped  to  the  call  was  Michael  Cresap  (a  son  of  Wash- 
ington's frontier  friend  and  partner  in  the  Ohio  Com- 
pany's venture),  who  was  then  at  the  head  of  a  band  of 
explorers  pausing  at  Wheeling  until  they  could  make 
certain  whether  there  ^vas  to  be  an  Indian  uprising. 
Cresap's  party  made  a  bad  matter  worse  by  ambushing 
and  killing  two  Shawanese  employed  by  Butler  to  re- 
cover his  plundered  goods;  and  the  passion  for  blood, 
which  was  so  often  to  manii'est  itself  in  the  vicinity  of 
Pittsburg,  having  got  hold  upon  them,  they  determined 
to  hasten  to  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Beaver  and  there  at- 
tack the  camp  of  Logan,  an  Iroquois  of  commanding  in- 
fluence among  Indians  and  also  much  trusted  by  the 
settlers.  Calmer  judgment,  however,  led  them  to  turn 
back;  but  before  April  closed  ten  Indians,  including  a 
number  of  Logan's  relatives,  all  of  whom  had  crossed 
the  Ohio  to  get  liquor,  were  massacred  while  drunk, 
and  it  was  generally  believed  that  Cresap  had  done  this 
base  deed.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  murders  were  com- 
mitted by  one  Greathouse  and  a  party  of  twenty  men. 
On  the  wings  of  the  forest-telegraph  news  of  the  foul 
murder  reached  Croghan  and  Sir  William  Johnson,  by 
whom  it  w^as  reported  to  London  as  an  act  certain  to 
bring  on  an  Indian  war.* 

the  court  held  that  individuals  had  no  rights  of  purchase  from  Ind- 
ians. It  is  not  strange  that  Lord  Duumore  should  have  succumbed  Lo 
the  then  prevailing  disease  of  land  speculation. 

'  Colonel  Cresap  the  elder  came  to  I^Iaryland  from  Yorkshire  when 

188 


KNGLANI)    TAKES    POSSESSION 

Th(3  frontier  was  now  in  an  uproar.  From  vil!n<^o  to 
village  throughout  the  Xorthwest  course<l  the  Meet  run- 
ners calling  to  the  wai*  path.  At  the  instigation  of  the 
Pennsylvania  traders  that  colony  held  itself  neutral,  put- 
ting npon  Virginia  the  onerous  task  of  meeting  the  hos- 
tilitv  of  the  savages.  Leaving  the  rebellious  house  of 
burgesses  to  what  he  consid<n'ed  their  treasonable  de- 
vices, Lord  Dunmore  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
popular  backwoods  movement  to  chastise  the  savages 
who  were  now  devastating  the  frontier,  Logan  himself 
taking  frequent  and  terribk  revenge  for  the  treacher- 
ous murder  of  his  relatives.' 

Lord  Dunmore's  phm  of  campaign  was  for  the  army 
to  gather  in  two  divisions:  he  himself,  commanding  the 
right  wing,  was  to  proceed  by  the  way  of  Pittsburg  to 

fifteen  j^eara  old.  After  many  fiimncial  vicissitudes  and  much  liard 
fighting  he  became  a  comparatively  wealthy  man  with  a  large  prop- 
erty on  the  Potomac.  At  the  age  of  seventy  he  visited  England;  at 
eighty  he  married  for  the  last  time;  at  ninety  he  planned  to  explore  the 
"'^untry  to  the  Paciflo,  but  was  forced  by  failing  powers  to  give  up 
the  undertaking,  and  he  died  at  the  ripe  age  of  one  hundred  and  six 
years.  Ills  son,  Captain  Michael  Cresa[),  had  been  brought  up  to 
fight  Indians;  he  had  thrown  away  the  advantages  of  education,  and, 
after  financial  troubles,  entered  the  Ohio  country  early  in  1774.  At 
this  time  he  was  working  about  fifteen  miles  above  the  Kanawha, 
and  was  called  upon  to  lead  the  frontiersmen  whom  Dr.  Conolly's 
summons  had  aroused.  It  appears  that  he  advised  against  the  attack 
on  Logan's  camp,  and  that  while  not  differing  from  his  companions  in 
his  general  hostility  to  Indians,  he  was  above  the  treachery  of  mur- 
dering drunken  savages. 

'  On  July  31,  1774,  Logan  addressed  to  Captain  Cresap  a  letter 
asking  why  the  latter  had  slain  Logan's  people  on  the  Yellow  Creek, 
and  boasting  that  he  had  been  three  times  to  war  since.  This  letter, 
written  in  gunpowder  ink  by  a  captive,  was  dictated  bj'  Logan  ;  it 
was  attached  to  a  war -club  aud  left  at  the  house  of  the  murdered 
Roberts  family,  whence  i*^  was  taken  to  Colonel  Preston,  whose  grand- 
daughter married  Hon.  I'homas  H.  Benton.— Brantz  Mayer's  Logan 
and  Cremp,  p.  111. 

189 


n^ 


THE    NOKTIIWKST    UXDHll   TllliKK    ILA(;s 

the  banks  of  the  Kanawhji,  there  to  join  the  left  win^ 
under  General  Andrew  Lewis.  On  the  great  levels  of 
the  Greenbrier  General  Lewis  <;athered  his  army  of 
stalwart  and  ex{)erienced  Indian  (igliters  —  men  fi'om 
the  back  counties  of  Virt!:inia  and  from  the  Watau<ca 
commonwealth,  then  perforce  an  independent  state 
under  the  leadership  of  Sevier  and  Itobe  >on.  On 
October  10th,  whih^  this  army  of  about  elevch  lundred 
men  was  in  camj)  at  Point  Pleasant,  with  the  kanawha 
at  the  rear  and  the  Ohio  on  the  left,  it  was  suddenly 
attacked  by  a  large  force  of  Indians  led  by  the  Shawa- 
nese  chief  Cornstalk;  and  in  the  desperate  all-day  battle 
that  ensued  one-lifth  of  the  whites  were  either  killed  or 
wounded,  while  the  Indians  withdrew  with  a  loss  of  about 
forty  killed.  Both  in  discipline  and  in  valor  the  Indians 
were  at  least  the  equals  of  the  whites ;  in  numbers  the 
two  forces  were  about  the  same ;  but  there  is  always  a 
point  where  the  Indians  will  give  up  the  hope  of  ulti- 
mate success  rather  than  suffer  the  loss  of  their  com- 
rades, and  so  it  was  that  in  the  battle  of  Point  I  isant 
the  savages  withdrew,  although  they  had  suffered  the 
smaller  loss.' 

Eager  to  follow  up  his  dearly  bought  victory,  Lewis 
crossed  the  Ohio  and  marched  his  armv  to  the  Picka- 
way  Plains,  whither  he  had  been  summoned  by  Lord 
Dunniore.  As  the  two  armies  approached,  General 
Lewis  was  ordered  into  camp  to  await  the  conclusion 
of  a  peace  that  the  reluctant  Cornstalk  was  forced  to 
make  when  iiis  l)urning  exhortations  to  battle  fell  upon 
the  ears  of  his  ilisheartened  braves  like  sparks  upon  the 
water.      The   great  chief   Logan   refused  to  enter  the 

*  For  au  account  of  the  battle,  see  American  Archives,  fourth  series, 
vol.  i.,  p.  1016  et  seq.  The  best  account  of  the  Duumore  expedition  is 
to  be  found  in  Whittlesey's  jP«^i7/r6?  Essays  (Hudson,  Ohio,  1852). 

190 


ENGLAND    TAKKS    POSStiSSlUN 

council;  and  wlien  Lord  Dunniore  suimaonod  liiia  lie 
sent  this  reply,  which  has  taken  a  place  in  our  litera- 
ture as  the  greatest  of  Indian  prose  elegies: 

"I  appeal  to  any  wliite  man  to  say  if  ever  he  entered 
Loijan's  cabin  hunc^rv  and  he  <j:ave  him  not  meat,  if 
ever  he  came  cold  and  naked  and  he  clothed  him  not. 
During  the  course  of  the  last  long  and  bloody  war, 
Logan  remained  idle  in  his  cabin,  an  advocate  for  peace. 
Such  WHS  my  love  for  the  whites  that  my  countrymen 
pointed  as  they  passed  and  said,  ^  Logan  is  the  friend  of 
Avhite  men.'  I  had  even  thought  to  have  lived  with 
you,  but  for  the  injuries  of  one  man.  Colonel  Cresaf), 
last  spring,  in  cold  blood  and  unprovoked,  murdered 
all  the  relations  of  Logan,  not  even  sparing  my  women 
and  children.  There  runs  not  a  drop  of  my  blood  in  the 
veins  of  anv  living  creature.  This  called  on  me  for  re- 
ven^e.  I  have  sought  it.  I  have  killed  man  v.  I  have 
fully  glutted  my  vengeance.  For  ray  country  I  rejoice 
at  the  beams  of  peace ;  but  do  not  harbor  a  thought  that 
mine  is  the  joy  of  fear.  Logan  never  felt  fear.  He  will 
not  turn  on  his  heel  to  save  his  life.  Who  is  there  to 
mourn  for  Logan?     Not  one!"* 

'  There  are  many  versions  of  this  message.  The  one  above  is  taken 
from  Jefferson's  Xoteif  oti  the  State  of  Virrjinia  (London,  1787).  p.  105. 
Jefferson  says  of  it :  "  I  may  challenge  the  whole  orations  of  Demos- 
thenes and  Cicero,  and  of  any  more  eminent  orator,  if  Europe  has  fur- 
nished more  eminent,  to  produce  a  single  passage  superior  to  the 
messages  of  Logan,  a  Mingo  chief,  to  L<  »rd  Duumore. "  lie  also  speaks 
of  "  Colonel  Cresap,  a  man  infamous  for  the  many  murders  committed 
on  those  much-injured  people."  Jefferson  never  wholly  retracted  this 
slander  on  Captain  Cresap,  although  he  had  full  opportunity  of  know- 
ing that  Cresaj)  was  not  within  fifty  miles  of  the  place  of  the  murder 
at  the  time  when  it  was  committed.  The  soldiers  of  Dunmore's  army 
knew  that  Cresap  was  unjustly  charged  with  the  murder,  and,  when 
the  message  was  read  to  them  at  the  treaty,  George  Rogers  Clark,  who 
was  in  Cresap's  party  at  Wheeling,  joked  him  about  being  so  impor- 

191 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

Cornstalk  and  Logan  assented  to  the  peace  deter- 
mined upon,  according  to  the  Indian  custom,  by  a 
majority  of  the  council;  and  Lord  Dunmore  marched 
back  to  Virginia  to  receive  the  applause  and  honor 
never  withheld  from  a  conqueror.  If  General  Lewis 
and  his  brave  officers  suspected  that  Lord  Dunmore 
had  left  them  to  their  ictte  at  Point  Pleasant,  that 
he  was  over-eager  to  make  peace  when  chastisement 
would  have  produced  better  results,  and  was  anxious  to 
claim  credit  for  success  achieved  only  through  their  vic- 


tant  an  Indian  fighter  as  to  be  credited  with  all  the  attacks  on  the 
savages.  Not  only  was  Cresap  innocent  of  the  murder,  but,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  Logan  had  a  number  of  relatives  (be  had  no  children 
by  his  wife)  remaining  after  the  massacre.  Moreover,  the  language 
on  which  the  message — it  was  not  a  speech — depends  for  its  ihetor- 
ical  effect  was  not  Logan's,  but  Colonel  John  Gibson's,  and  he  in  turn 
in  part  paraphrased  the  Bible  and  in  part  adopted  the  biblical  style. 
Gibson,  as  it  appears,  received  Logan's  message  from  Simon  Girty, 
who  had  been  sent  to  find  Logan.  Girty  translated  it  into  English, 
and  Gibson  put  it  into  its  present  shape.  It  is  idle,  therefore,  to 
regard  the  production  as  a  specimen  of  Indian  eloquence  ;  but  the 
message  as  given  to  Lord  Dunmore  made  a  decided  impression  at  the 
time,  and  Jefferson  fixed  it  among  classics.  Both  Logan  and  Jeffer- 
son spoke  of  "Colonel "  Cresap.  Colonel  Cresap  was  the  father  ;  the 
son  was  a  captain  then  and  until  his  death. — See  Whittlesey's  Fugitive 
Essays,  p.  143,  and  Butterfield's  History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  29. 

Logan  was  a  son  of  the  chief  Skikellamy,  who  lived  at  Shamokin, 
on  the  Susquehanna.  Perhaps  the  fatlier  was  a  Frenchman  who  had 
been  transformed  into  an  Indian.  Logan  was  named  for  his  father's 
friend,  Jamos  Logan,  at  one  time  Secretary  of  the  colony  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. Although  not  technically  a  chief,  he  was  not  without  follow- 
ers ;  his  father  was  of  the  Iroquois,  but  Logan  married  a  Shawanese. 
During  the  Revolution  he  was  actively  employed  by  the  British  until 
about  1780,  when  be  was  killed  ir:  self-defence  by  a  relative.  Having 
become  a  victim  of  the  Englishman's  rum,  he  struck  his  wife  while  at 
Detroit,  and  escaped  into  the  forest  lest  he  should  be  killed  by  her 
people.  Meeting  one  of  his  relatives  while  in  a  crazy  condition, 
Logan  attacked  him  ana  was  shot. — See  Brantz  Mayer's  Logan  and 
Cresap. 

192 


SIMON   KENTON 
(From  a  paiutiug  by  Robert  Clarke,  Ciuciuuati,  Ohio) 


ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION 

tory,  nevertheless  thoy  joined  with  the  army  in  thank- 
ing Lord  Dunraore  for  his  leadership  in  the  ex})edition. 
Perhaps,  however,  the  vote  of  thanks  passed  by  the  as- 
sembly of  officers,  held  when  they  reached  Fort  Gower, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Hocking,  was  intended  to  take 
the  personal  sting  out  of  the  remaining  resolutions, 
wherein  the  backwoods  Virginians  proclaimed  that,  al- 
thou^rh  bearint;  faithful  allemance  to  Georo^e  III.,  th«n' 
were  resol* .  d  to  exert  every  power  within  them  ''for  the 
defence  of  American  liberty,  and  for  the  support  of  her 
just  rights  and  privileges,  not  in  any  precipitous,  riot- 
ous, or  tumultuous  manner,  but  when  regularly  called 
forth  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  our  countrymen." 
Thus  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence the  men  of  the  frontiers,  gathered  on  the  soil 
of  the  Kortnwest,  pledged  the  new  lands  to  freedom/ 

During  the  following  year  Captain  Cresap  raised  a 
company  of  backwoodsmen  and  marched  with  them 
over  the  Alleghanies  to  join  Washington  at  Cambridge. 
His  own  strength,  however,  was  insufficient  for  the 
great  struggle,  and  after  a  brief  stay  with  the  army 
he  turned  his  face  westward  only  to  die  when  he  had 
reached  Xew  York.  He  was  buried  with  military 
honors  in  Trinity  church-yard. 

Not  alone  through  the  eight  long  and  bitter  years  of 
the  Revolution,  but  through  the  forty  years  that  were 
to  come  before  England  finally  relinquished  her  grasp 
on  the  territory  between  the  Ohio  and  the  Great  Lakes, 
the  pledge  made  on  the  banks  of  the  Hocking  was 
held  good  by  the  pioneers  of  Kentucky  and  their  de- 
scendants.     Boone  and    Kenton,   Clark    and    Shelby, 

'  The  resolutions  are  given  in  full  in  Whittlesey's  Fugitive  Esmys, 
p.  152. 

N  193 


THE    NOUTliWEST    UNDER    lllREE    FLAGS 

Lewis  and  Gibson — these  are  the  names  borne  by  mak- 
ers and  preservers  of  the  Northwest.  Tlie  Dunmore 
war,  so  far  from  being  a  mere  episode  of  the  border, 
conquered  the  peace  tliat  opened  Kentucky  to  settle- 
ment ;  and  Kentucky  in  its  turn  not  only  made  an 
impassable  frontier  barrier  to  protect  the  rear  of  the 
colonies  during  the  Revolution,  but  also  furnished  the 
men  and  the  leaders  who  subdued  the  savages  of  the 
Northwest,  and  finally  broke  the  power  of  the  British 
at  the  battle  of  the  Thames  in  the  War  of  1812. 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE  QUEBEC   ACT  AND  THE  REVOLUTION 

The  British  policy  of  maintaining  the  Northwest  as  an 
Indian  huntinfr-frround  was  a  failure.  To  the  colonies 
the  fertile  lands  along  the  (3hio  were  a  temptation  to  be 
disposed  of  onlv  bv  vieldinf?  to  it;  and  the  Indians  had 
no  power  to  protect  their  possessions  when  once  the 
settlers  had  learned  to  fight  after  the  fashion  of  the 
savages.  Indeed,  both  in  woodcraft  and  in  ambush, 
the  whites  became  more  expert  than  the  Indians  them- 
selves; in  endurance  the  backwoodsman  was  not  ex- 
celled, and  he  was  vastly  superior  to  his  red  enemy 
in  self-control  and  persistency  of  purpose.  Moreover, 
even  such  law-abiding  subjects  as  Washington  never 
took  seriously  the  proclamation  of  1763,  as  prohibit- 
ing settlements  beyond  the  mountains;'  but  steadfastly 
maintained  that  the  Ohio  country  was  within  the  char- 
tered limits  of  Virginia.  Also  the  impossibility  of  con- 
trolling: the  Northwest  bv  means  of  scattered  militarv 
])osts  and  without  laws  or  courts  soon  became  apparent.^ 
Added  to  this  was  the  signal  failure  of  the  proclama- 
tion of  1763  as  a  means  of  dealing  with  the  many  and 
perplexing  questions  that  arose  in  the  province  of  Quebec. 

'  Secret  Journals  of  Congress  (Boston,  1821),  vol.  iil.,  p.  153  et  seq. 

'•^  Virginia  held  courts  beyond  the  Allcghriniea  in  1773;  but  there 
was  no  regular  government  southvrest  of  Fort  Pitt  ;  and  Conolly's 
courts  were  scarcely  to  be  classed  as  such  (see  Secret  Journals  of  Con- 
gress, vol.  iil.,  p.  187). 

195 


THE    XORTIIWEST    UNJ)I:R    TIIRKE    FLAGS 

The  ebbing  tide  of  war  left  in  control  at  Quebec  Gen- 
eral James  Murray,  who  was  styled  in  his  com  mission 
"  captain-general  and  governor-in-chief ''  of  the  province.' 
The  most  extensive  powers  were  conferred  upon  him 
and  his  council ;  but  no  assembly  was  provided  for, 
though  a  })romise  of  self-government  at  some  future 
time  was  made  in  the  })roclamation  of  1703.  The  car- 
dinal difficulty  experienced  in  government  arose  from 
the  attempt  to  give  Enghsh  laws  to  a  people  unac- 
quainted with  trial  by  jury  or  the  haheas  corpus.  Gen- 
eral Murray,  although  a  distinguished  soldier  at  the 
siege  of  Quebec,  was  not  a  successful  administrator; 
and  after  two  years  of  weary  life  in  the  new  govern- 
ment he  gave  place  to  one  of  his  fellow-generals,  Guy 
Carleton,  on  whom  was  conferred  the  larger  title  of 
governor  of  Canada." 

In  a  letter  to  Lord  Hillsborough,  written  in  1770, 
Carleton  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Protes- 
tants who  had  settled,  or  rather  sojourned,  in  Quebec 
since  the  conquest,  were  traders,  disbanded  soldiers,  and 
officers  below  the  rank  of  captain.  Of  those  w4io  would 
naturally  be  called  on  to  administer  justice,  the  ones  who 
were  successful  in  business  had  no  time  to  act  as  judges; 
while  tliose  whose  ill  success  resulted  in  bankru|)tcy 
naturally  sought  lj  repair  their  broken  fortunes  at  the 
expense  of  the  people.  Hence  aro^e  a  variety  of  schemes 
to  increase  their  business,  and  consequently  their  fees ; 
bailiffs  of  their  own  creation — mostlv  French  soldiers, 
either  disbanded  or  deserters — were  dispersed  through 
the  parishes  with  blank  citations,  to  catch  at  everj^  little 

'  Murray's  commission  is  given  in  full  in  American  ArcJdves,  4th 
series,  vol.  i.,  p.  175. 

'Murray  was  the  fifth  son  of  the  fourth  Lor(.'  Elibank,  and,  after 
leaving  Canada,  was  made  governor  of  Minorca.     He  died  in  1794. 

196 


THE  QUEBEC  ACT  AND  THE  UEVOLL'TION 

feud  among  tiie  |)eo|)le  and  force  tliein  to  litigate  quar- 
rels which,  had  the  people  been  left  to  themselves,  might 
easilv  have  been  accommodated.  In  order  to  put  a  stop 
to  sucli  abuses,  Carleton  reduced  tlie  power  of  the  jus- 
tices of  the  peace,  in  part  revived  tlie  old  laws  of  Can- 
ada, and  arranged  to  have  matters  relating  to  j)roperty 
decided  by  king's  judges  paid  by  the  crown.' 

This  action  was  taken  after  a  careful  examination  of 
the  entire  question  by  a  committee  of  five,  headed  by 
Chief- justice  Iley  and  Lieutenant-governor  Cramaiie. 
The  committee  reported  that  the  authority  and  powers 
of  the  justices  of  the  peace  in  matters  of  property,  as 
contained  in  the  ordinance  of  1704,  were  very  injudi- 
cious. Even  in  England,  where  the  justices  of  the 
peace  were,  for  the  most  part,  men  of  large  fortunes, 
who  had  a  considerable  interest  in  common  with  the 
people  over  whom  their  authority  was  exercised,  the  jus- 
tices had  no  such  extensive  powers  as  in  Canada ;  and 
yet  in  Canada  the  justices  had  even  usurped  authoi'ity 
not  given  to  them  in  their  commissions;  so  that  titles  to 
land  had  been  determined  and  possessions  disturbed  in 
a  way  unknown  to  the  laws  of  England.  Moreover,  in 
the  absence  of  any  manner  of  ascertaining  how  their 
judgments  were  to  be  enforced,  the  magistrates  had  as- 
sumed authority  in  such  a  way  as  to  fill  the  jails  with 
numbers  of  unhappy  subjects  whose  families  were  re- 
duced to  beggary  and  ruin.  It  had  become  a  common 
practice  to  take  lands  in  execution  and  sell  them  to  sat- 
isfy even  a  small  debt.  The  very  powers  originally  cal- 
culated for  the  ease  of  the  suitor  and  to  facilitate  the 
courts  of  justice  had  become  the  very  instrument  of  his 

'  "  Carleton  to  Hillsbororglj,"  and  also  "Letter  from  an  ex-Captain 
of  Militia,"  Cancidian  Archives,  1890,  pp.  1-5. 

197 


TIIK    NOIITIIWKST    U  X  I)  K  II    TIIUKE    FLAGS 

oppression  and  ruin,  m  ono  instance  the  expense  of 
suinf?  for  a  debt  of  eleven  livres  amounted  to  eiirh- 

CD  O 

ty-four  livres.  The  ordinance  prepared  to  make  the 
changes  indicated  above  was  approved  by  the  king, 
who,  wrote  Lord  Hillsborough,  ''  wishes  that  every  just 
ground  of  discontent  should  be  removed,  and  every 
real  <]rrievance  remedied  as  far  as  mav  be." 

As  was  to  be  expected,  the  justices  rebelled  against 
this  diminution  of  their  authority;  but  Carleton  warned 
them  that  they  were  acting  against  their  own  interests. 
In  this  ordinance  is  to  be  found,  in  part,  the  basis  for 
the  Quebec  act  in  1774. 

The  Quebec  act  was  so  obnoxious  to  the  American 
colonists  that  it  was  cited  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence as  "abolishing  the  free  system  of  English 
laws  in  a  neighboring  province,  establishing  therein 
an  arbitrary  government,  and  enlarging  its  boundaries 
so  as  to  render  it  at  once  an  example  and  fit  instrument 
for  introducing  the  same  arbitrary  rule  into  these  colo- 
nies.-' Taken  as  one  of  the  many  measures  by  which 
the  ministers  of  George  III.  sought  to  curb  and  repress 
the  colonies,  the  Quebec  act  was  unwise  and  impolitic. 
Viewed  from  the  stand-point  of  a  quiet  administration 
of  England's  new  territories,  it  was  so  successful  that 
during  the  Revolution  the  Americans  failed  in  all  their 
efforts  to  detach  the  Canadians  generally  from  their  al- 
legiance to  the  British.  In  Parliament,  however,  the 
bill  met  with  vigorous  but  ineffectual  opposition,  both 
from  the  friends  of  the  colonists  and  also  from  the  Brit- 
ish merchants  doing  business  in  Canada. 

The  bill,  brought  up  in  the  House  of  Lords  by  the 
Earl  of  Dartmouth,  on  May  *2,  1774,  passed  without  op- 
position fifteen  days  later.  On  June  18  it  was  returned 
to  the  House  of  Lords  with  amendments  introduced  by 

198 


THE   QUEBEC    ACT   AND   THE    REVOLUTION 

the  House  of  Commons.  At  ibis  stnge  it  wjis  opposed 
by  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  who  threw  into  his  opposition 
all  the  energy  which  his  seriously  enfeebled  condition 
allowed  him  to  ffive  to  a  measure  that  seemed  to  him  a 
"cruel,  oppressive,  and  odious"  means  of  governing  a 
realm  that  under  his  rule  had  been  con(iuered  by  British 
arms  and  dedicated  to  the  widest  freedom  then  known 
to  mankind.  In  prophetic  words  he  described  the  bill 
as  "destructive  of  that  libortv  which  oudit  to.be  the 
groundwork  of  every  constitution,"  Jind  as  "calculated 
to  shake  the  affections  and  contidence  of  his  Majesty's 
subjects  in  England  and  Ireland,  and  finally  lose  him 
the  hearts  of  all  Americans."  * 

In  the  House  of  Commons  the  ministry  defended  and 
explained  the  bill  as  one  calculated  to  do  only  simple 
justice  to  a  people  conquered  indeed,  but  still  alien  to 
the  laws,  the  language,  and  the  customs  of  their  con- 
querors ;  a  people  as  yet  too  ignorant  to  appreciate  and 
to  take  advantage  of  the  freedom  that  w^as  to  an  Eng- 
lishman as  the  very  air  he  breathed.  They  explained 
that  the  bill  was  drawn  by  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  sec- 
retary of  state  for  the  colonies,"  with  the  advice  of  the 
then  governor  of  Quebec,  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  and  of  the 
chief-justice  of  that  colony,  William  Iley,  both  of  whom 
must  be  credited  with  unusual  ability,  with  a  wide  prac- 
tical experience  in  the  affairs  of  Canada,  and  with  a  sin- 
cere desire  to  promote  the  well-being  of  the  vast  major- 
ity of  the  people  of  that  country. 

The  bill  provided  for  a  governor  and  council ;  the 
criminal  laws  of  England  were  continued  in  force 
throughout  the  colony  of  Quebec,  but  all  civil  causes 
were  to  be  determined   according  to  the  custom  of 

'  Ca .  eudish's  Repo.t,  p.  4. 

'  Cavendish's  Report.     Speech  of  Lord  North,  p.  8. 

199 


THE    NOUTllWEST    UNDKU    TllKEE    FLAGS 

Pans;  tlie  Roman  Catliolic  religion  was  established 
by  continninf^  the  stipends  of  bishops  and  clergy  ;  and 
the  boundaries  of  the  colony  were  enlarg(»d  by  in- 
cluding the  Labrador  coast  and  the  country  north  of 
the  Ohio. 

In  defending  the  bill,  Lord  North,  tlien  the  leader  of 
the  ministry,  explained  that  the  value  of  the  Labrador 
fisheries,  but  recently  discovered,  made  it  absolutely 
necessary,  for  the  preservation  of  those  fisheries,  to 
detach  the  country  from  New  York  and  to  attach  it 
to  Quebec.  The  scattered  posts  in  the  Northwest  were 
annexed  to  Canada  because  the  traders  demanded  some 
government  for  them,  and  a  single  government  was  pref- 
erable to  several  separate  governments.  If  the  bill  did 
extend  the  ancient  limits  of  Cii.nada,as  had  been  charged, 
"  the  country  to  which  it  is  extended  is  the  habitation  of 
bears  and  beavers;  and  all  these  regulations,  which  only 
pretend  to  protect  the  trader,  as  far  as  they  can  protect 
him,  undoubtedly  cannot  be  considered  oppressive  to 
any  of  the  inhabitants  in  that  part  of  the  world,  who 
are  very  few,  except  about  the  coast,  and  at  present  in 
a  very  disorderly  and  ungovernable  condition."  An 
assembly,  Lord  North  argued,  could  not  be  granted, 
because,  the  bulk  of  inhabitants  being  Roman  Catho- 
lics, an  assembly  of  Roman  Catholics  would  be  a  hard- 
ship to  the  few"  British  subjects,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  an  assembly  confined  to  the  English  would  prove 
oppressive  to  the  Roman  Catholics.  Before  the  con- 
quest France  had  ruled  the  country  by  means  of  a 
governor  and  council ;  now  the  English  proposed  to 
do  the  same.  The  English  civil  law  might  be  better 
than  the  French,  but  property  in  Canada  had  become 
established  under  French  law,  and  it  was  but  fair  that, 

inasmuch  as  the  treaty  of  1763  established  the  Canadi- 

200 


TUE  QUKBEC  ACT  AND  THE  KEVuLLTluN 

ans  in  their  possessions,  they  should  be  maintained  in 
those  possessions  by  the  hiw  under  which  they  Nvero 
created,  subject  to  such  changes  as  the  governor  and 
council  might  find  necessary.  As  for  the  estabhshment 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  the  Act  of  Supremacy 
expressly  guarded  against  papal  authority ;  and  the  free 
exercise  of  their  religion  was  guaranteed  to  the  Canadi- 
ans by  the  treaty  of  1703.' 

The  brave  Colonel  Barre,  who  had  shed  his  blood  on 
the  Plains  of  Abraham,  resented  the  sneers  of  Lord 
North.  The  Northwestern  country,  he  said,  so  tar 
from  being  given  up  to  bears  and  beavers,  already  con- 
tained the  houses  of  many  thousands  of  English  sub- 
jects who  had  crossed  the  Alleghanies,  as  they  had  a 
right  to  do,  to  make  settlements."  By  making  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes  the  boundary  of  Canada, 
as  it  was  made  in  the  peace  negotiations  with  France 
in  1703,  the  scattered  posts  in  the  neighborhood  of  De- 
troit and  Lake  ^lichigan  could  be  included,  and  thus  the 
Ohio  be  left  open  to  settlement.  The  youth **ul  orator, 
Charles  Fox,"  who  had  ceased  to  be  a  Lord  of  the  Treas- 
ury but  fourteen  days  previous  to  the  debate,  opposed 
the  right  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  clergy  to  receive  tithes 
as  to  his  mind  a  fatal  objection  to  the  bill. 

'Cavendish's  Report,  p.  12.  The  treaty  provided  "that  every 
Canadian  shonld  have  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  his  property,  par- 
ticularly the  religious  orders  of  the  Canadians,  and  that  the  free  ex- 
ercise of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  should  be  continued." — Speech 
of  Edward  Thurlow,  Attorney-general,  Cavendish's  Report,  p.  28. 

'^  Colonel  Isaac  Barre,  member  for  Wycombe,  is  represented  in 
West's  picture  of  the  death  of  Wolfe  as  one  of  the  group  of  officers 
standing  near  the  dying  general.  He  was  severely  wounded  in  the 
engagement  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham. 

^  At  this  time  Fox  was  just  twenty-tive  years  old,  and  had  already 
been  a  member  of  the  House  for  six  years. 

201 


THE  NORTHWEST  umh:r  three  flags 

Edmund  Burke'  opposed  the  bill  on  the  ground  that 
the  boundaries  came  within  those  of  the  colony  of  Xew 
York,  and  also  because  tiic  House  was  without  suflicient 
information  as  to  the  conditi(m  of  affairs  in  Canada; 
and  he  succeeded  in  having  the  bill  amended  so  as  to 
secure  to  the  colony  of  New  York  substantially  the 
same  western  boundaries  that  the  State  now  enjoys. 

Thomas  Penn,  the  son,  and  John  Penn,  the  grand- 
son, of  William  Penn,  by  petition  protested  that  their 
rights  as  proprietors  were  affected  adversely  by  the 
boundaries;  and  the  British  merchants  trading  in  Can- 
ada objected  lo  the  provisions  doing  away  with  trial  by 
jury  in  civil  cases,  and  subjecting  their  property  to 
Canadian  laws  contained  in  some  thirty  volumes  and 
administered  by  judges  ignorant  of  those  laws. 

At  this  juncture  General  Carleton,  having  been  called 
before  the  House,  testified,  as  to  the  result  of  four  years 
of  experience  in  the  governorship,"  that  the  Canadians 
objected  to  the  expense  of  trial  by  jury  and  to  the  fact 
that  trials  were  conducted  in  r.  language  they  did  not 
understand.  The\^  thought  it  '*  very  strange  that  the 
English  residing  in  Canada  should  prefer  to  have  mat- 
ters of  law  decided  bv  tailors  and  shoemakers,  mixed 
up  with  respectable  gentlemen  in  trade  and  commerce; 
that  they  should  prefer  their  decision  to  that  of  a 
judge.'"      In    1770,   he   said,   there   were    in    Canada 

'  Burke  was  a  member  for  Wendover,  and  also  ageut  for  the  coiony 
of  New  York  in  England. 

^  Carleton  had  been  in  office  four  years  when,  in  1770.  he  was  called 
to  London  to  assist  in  drafting  the  Quebec  Bill.  During  the  four 
years  of  his  absence  the  government  was  administered  by  II,  T. 
Cramahe,  Lieutenant-governor.     See  Canadian  Archives,  1890,  p.  12. 

2  Cavendish's  Report,  p.  103.  Carleton's  testimony  in  an  abridged 
form  is  found  in  the  Birliamentanj  Debates  for  1774,  and  in  American 
Archives,  4th  series,  vol.  i.,  p.  190. 

303 


EDMrXD   RURKE 


THE  QUEBEC  ACT  AND  THE  REVOLUTION 

about  360  men  who  claimvid  to  be  Protestants ;  whereas 
the  number  of  Roman  Catholics  was  about  150,000 
souls.  The  clergy  had  continued  to  receive  their  tith.es 
and  parochial  dues  as  under  the  French  ;  but  from  mo- 
tives of  policy  such  tithes  and  dues  had  not  been  en- 
forced against  the  few  English  land-owners. 

When  asked  bv  Lord  North  whether  the  Canadians 
desired  assemblies,  Governor  Carleton  promptly  an- 
swered:  "Certainly  not.  I  put  the  question  to  several 
of  the  Canadians.  They  told  me  assemblies  had  drawn 
upon  other  colonies  so  much  distress,  had  occasioned 
such  riots  and  confusion,  that  thev  wished  never  to 
have  one  of  any  kind  whatever."  This  answer,  which 
was  entirely  consistent  with  the  Canadian  tempera- 
ment, also  throws  a  strong  light  on  the  determina- 
tion of  the  ministry  not  to  raise  up  in  Canada  another 
seditious  colony  by  granting  an  assembly.  When  it 
came  to  the  question  of  wider  boundaries,  General  Carle- 
ton  spoke  with  reluctance  born  of  ignorance.  The  Ohio 
country,  he  said,  was  not  included  within  the  govern- 
ment of  Quebec ;  Detroit  was  not  under  the  govern- 
ment, but  Michigan  was;  he  thought  that  the  Illi- 
nois country  w^as  a  part  of  Old  Canada,  and  that  Xew 
Orleans  was  under  the  government  of  Quebec,  but  pre- 
cisely where  the  district  ended  he  really  did  not  know, 
nor  did  he  know  how  far  the  Illinois  was  from  Quebec. 
The  diflSculties  with  the  narrow  boundaries  of  Quebec 
named  in  the  proclamation  of  1763  were  practical  ones. 
Both  the  Canadian  and  the  English  traders  complained 
that  they  were  obliged  to  send  their  property  to  posts 
where  there  were  no  courts  of  justice,  and  even  their 
g.^ants  of  land  were  without  the  protection  of  law  ;  as  a 
result  the  Upper  Country  was  the  asylum  for  vagabonds. 
He  admitted  that  the  Indians  might  object  to  the  new 

203 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE     FLAGS 

boundaries;  for  he  said,  "there  are  a  great  many  tribes 
of  Indians  who  think  that  neither  we,  nor  France,  nor 
any  European  power,  have  any  title  to  the  country;  nor 
do  they  acknowledge  themselves  to  be  our  subjects;" 
but  the  Indians  look  upon  their  hunting-grounds  as  free. 

On  June  22,  1774,  four  days  after  the  Quebec  bill 
passed  the  House  of  Commons,  the  Lord  Mayor  of 
London,  together  with  several  aldermen  and  upwards 
of  one  hundred  and  lifty  of  the  common  council,  ap- 
l)eared  at  ^t.  James  Palace  with  an  address  and  peti- 
tion to  the  king,  supplicating  his  Majesty  to  refuse  his 
assent  to  the  bill.  The  king  replied  through  the  lord 
chamberlain  that  the  bill  was  not  yet  before  him ;  and 
thereupon  proceeded  to  Westminster  to  prorogue  Par- 
liament, going  first  to  the  House  of  Lords,  where  he 
gave  his  assent  to  the  bill,  saying  that  it  was  ''founded 
on  the  clearest  principles  of  justice  and  humanity,  and 
would,  he  doubted  not,  have  the  best  effect  in  quieting 
the  minds  and  promoting  the  happiness  of  his  Canadian 
subjects."  * 

Governor  Carleton  returned  to  Quebec,  September  18, 
1774,  to  find  the  Canadians  well  disposed  tow^ards  the 
new  act ;"  but  the  British  subjects  w^ere  indignant  at  being 
deprived  of  ''  the  franchises  which  they  inherited  from 
their  forefathers,"  at  their  loss  of  the  protection  of  Eng- 
lish law^s,  "so  universallv  admired  for  their  wisdom  and 
lenity,"  and  at  the  introduction  of  the  laws  of  Canada, 
to  which  the}^  were  total  strangers.'  But  in  spite  of 
petitions  and  motions  to  repeal  the  act,  it  w^ent  into 
operation  and  continued  in  force  until  1791,  when  a 
new  government  was  given  to  Quebec,  and  Canada 
w^as  divided  into  L^pper  and  Lower  Canada. 

'  Cavendish's  Report,  p.  4.  '  Canndian  Archives,  1890,  p.  14. 

'  Petition  of  the  English  settlers.     See  Cavendisli's  Report,  p.  14. 

204 


THE  QUEBEC  ACT  AND  THE  REVOLUTION 

From  the  Quebec  act  dates  the  beginning  of  civil 
government  in  the  Northwest.'  Under  the  provisions 
of  the  act  Detroit  was  made  the  capital  of  the  territory 
northwest  of  the  Ohio,  and  civil  oliicers  wore  selected 
according  to  the  spoils  system,  then  at  its  height  in 
England. 

Henry  Hamilton,  by  the  grace  of  Tving  George  the 
Third  and  the  favor  of  the  Earl  of  Dj'.rtinouth,  lieuten- 
ant-governor and  superintendent  at  Detroit,  reachfid  his 
new  station  on  the  9th  of  November,  1775.  His  jour- 
ney was  not  without  the  sj)ice  of  adventure.  At  Cara- 
bridire  Washington  was  in  command  of  the  American 
army,  and  General  Montgomery's  little  force  patrolled 
the  waters  and  the  paths  leading  to  the  island-city  of 
Montreal,  that  was  soon  (November  13th)  to  yield  a  tem- 
porary conquest.  Through  these  ineffectual  lines  IL»m- 
ilton  passed  in  the  disguise  of  a  Canadian.  The  Ameri- 
cans, having  come  to  Canada  not  so  much  to  conquer 
the  province  as  to  make  an  offer  of  freedom  to  the 
Canadians,  had  yet  to  learn  that  the  dwellers  along 
the  St.  Lawrence  were  well  satisfied  to  endure  the  ills 
they  had,  rather  than  ally  themselves  with  a  heretic 
people  turbulent  for  liberty."     After  four  days  of  travel 

'  The  Quebec  act  is  given  iu  full  in  American  Arcliives,  4tli  series, 
vol.  i. ,  p.  216  et  seq. 

•  Ou  April  2,  1776,  Franklin,  Samuel  Chase,  and  Charles  Carroll, 
of  Carrollton,  commissioners,  accompanied  by  Rev.  John  Carroll,  S. 
J.  (afterwards  the  first  Roman  Catholic  Archbishop  of  the  United 
States),  left  Albany  "  to  promote  or  to  form  a  union  between  the  col- 
onies and  the  people  of  Canada."  The  complete  failure  of  their  mis- 
sion is  to  be  attributed  mainly  to  the  fact  that  under  the  Quebec  act 
the  Canadians  had  been  left  free  in  the  exercise  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic religion,  and  to  a  large  degree  that  religion  "was  established"; 
whereas  Congress,  in  their  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain 
(October  21,  1774),  could  not  "suppress  astonishment  that  a  British 
Parliament  should  ever  consent  to  establish  in  that  country  (Canada) 

205 


THE     NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    fLAGS 

in  a  wooden  canoe,  and  *'  unprovided  with  everything/' 
he  reached  a  point  of  safety,  and  thereafter  travelled  in 
a  manner  more  befitting  an  otiicer  of  the  king.  Once 
in  Detroit,  however,  all  perils  were  forgotten  in  conteni 
plating  the  charms  of  the  place.  The  kindly  fruits  of 
the  earth  abounded ;  the  woods  were  full  of  biossoniiii^ 
shrubs,  wild  flowers,  and  aromatic  herbs;  and  no  other 
climate  he  had  ever  known  was  so  agreeable.  The 
shingled  houses  of  the  settlers,  each  backed  by  a  boun- 
teous orchard  and  flanked  by  barns  and  stables  making 
a  continuous  row,  smiled  a  welcome  to  the  traveller  as 
he  sailed  up  the  brimming  river.  From  the  clear 
depths  of  the  stream  a  few  hours  of  amusement  witii 
the  line  would  draw  enough  fish  to  furnish  several  fam- 
ilies ;  and  so  fertile  was  the  land  that  even  the  careless 
and  very  ignorant  French  fanners  raised  great  crops  of 
wheat,  corn,  barle}^  and  buckwheat.  The  whites  num- 
bered about  1500;'  and  among  them  tne  law  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  was  already  at  work.  The  English 
settlers,  more  industrious  and  more  enterprising  than 

a  religion  that  has  deluged  your  island  in  blood,  and  dispersed  im- 
piety, bigotry,  persecution,  and  rebellion  through  every  part  of  the 
world."  Such  an  attack  on  the  religion  of  a  people  could  not  be 
glossed  over  by  the  mild  statement  in  the  address  of  Congress  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Quebec,  that  "  we  are  too  well  acquainted  with  the  lib- 
erality of  sentiment  distinguishing  your  nation,  to  imagine  that  differ- 
ence of  religion  will  prejudice  you  against  a  hearty  amity  with  us." 
See  American  Archives,  vol.  v.,  p.  66;  Journal  of  Charles  CarroU 
of  Carrollton,  with  memoir  by  Brantz  Mayer,  Maryland  Ilistoricnl 
Society  Publications,  1845 ;  and  Emily  Mason's  diaries  Can'oll  of 
Carrollton. 

'  A  surve}^  of  the  settlement  of  Detroit  in  March.  1779,  shows  1011 
men,  265  women,  253  "  lodgers  hired  or  young  men,"  484  boys,  402 
girls,  60  male  slaves,  and  78  female  slaves;  there  were  413  oxen,  770 
cows,  619  steers,  1076  hogs,  664  horses,  313  sheep,  and  141,000 
pounds  of  flour,  besides  wheat,  Indian-corn,  pease  and  oats  in  good 
quantity. — Michigan  Pioneer  and  IliatGrical  Collections,  1886,  p.  327. 

206 


Tin:  gUEBEC  ACT  AND  THE  UEVOLUTlON 

the  French,  were  rapidly  absorbing  llie  traffic,  were 
building  vessels  to  navigate  the  lakes,  and  were  stock- 
ing the  farms  with  cattle,  horses,  and  sheej3.' 

Yet  all  was  not  joy.  The  country  was  overrun  by 
traders  who  made  it  their  business  to  cheat  the  Indians 
by  false  weights  and  measures,  by  debasing  the  silver 
tiiukets  with  copper,  aiivl  by  a  thousand  other  artifices 
so  persistently  resorted  to  as  to  make  the  words  trader 
and  cheat  synonymous,  and  thus  to  lead  to  dis|)utes, 
quarrels,  and  murders.  The  Indians  themselves  were 
as  the  leaves  blown  by  the  autumn  winds  for  number; 
and  their  thirst  was  as  that  of  the  ground  [)arciied  by 
the  August  heats;  and  although  usually  they  did  not 
steal  from  one  another,  yet  they  thought  it  no  wrong 
to  take  from  the  whites  what  provis'ons  they  could  lay 
their  hands  on.  On  arriving  at  Detroit  an  Indian  hunt- 
ing party  would  trade  perhaps  a  third  of  their  peltries 
for  fine  clothes,  ammunition,  paint,  tobacco,  and  like 
articles.  Then  a  keg  of  brandy  would  be  purchased, 
and  a  council  held  to  decide  who  was  to  get  drunk 
and  who  to  keep  sober.  All  arms  and  clubs  were 
taken  away  and  hidden,  and  the  orgy  would  begin, 
all  the  Indians  in  the  neighborhood  being  called  in. 
It  was  the  task  of  those  who  kept  sober  to  prevent 
the  drunken  ones  from  killing  one  another,  a  task  al- 
ways hazardous  and  frequently  unsuccessful,  sometimes 
as  many  as  five  being  killed  in  a  night.  When  the 
keg  w^as  empty,  brandy  was  brought  by  the  kettleful 
and  ladled  out  with  large  w^ooden  spoons;  and  this 
was  kept  up  until  the  last  skin  had  been  disposed  of. 
Then,  dejected,  wounded,  lamed,  with  their  fine  new 
shirts  torn,  their  blankets  burned,  and  with  nothing  but 

*  Hamilton  to  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth. — Michigan  Pioneer  and  His- 
toiical  Collections,  1886,  p.  265. 

207 


TIIK    XOUTIIWKST    UNDEIl    T  II  U  K  K    FLAGS 

their  ammunition  and  tobacco  saved,  they  would  start 
off  down  the  river  to  hunt  in  the  Ohio  countrv,  and' 
be«,nn  again  the  same  round  of  alternating  toil  and 
debauchery.' 

Hamilton  found  the  fort  in  a  tolerable  state  of  de- 
fence against  either  the  savages  or  an  enemy  unpro- 
vided with  cannon  ;  the  new  stoc!:ade  of  cedar,  twelve 
hnndred  paces  in  extent  and  tifteen  feet  high,  was  forti- 
fied by  eleven  block-houses  and  batteries,  and  on  two 
sides  of  the  citadel  was  a  protected  ditch.  Echoes  from 
the  conflict  in  the  east  came  from  time  to  time,  in  the 
shape  of  rumors  that  th:  Virginians  were  tampering 
with  the  savages ;  but  tor  a  time  at  least  Hamilton  was 
able  to  carry  matters  with  a  high  liand,  promising  to 
protect  the  whole  Indian  country  from  the  inroads  of 
the  colonists.  Not  a  few  of  the  French  were  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  Virgir)ians,  and  some  were  secretly  in 
communication  with  Fort  Pitt.''  Moreover,  the  Span- 
ish across  the  Mississippi  were  losing  no  opportunity 
to  prejudice  the  Indians  against  the  English;  for  by  so 
doing  they  hoped  to  divert  the  fur-trade  to  their  own 
posts.' 

Such  were  the  conditions  when,  one  day  in  the  latter 
part  of  August,  177C,  an  Englishman,  a  Delaware  chief 

'  Colonel  James  Smith's  Narrative,  p.  83. 

2  "Jean  Baptiste  Cliapoton  (who  had  been  captain  of  militia  at 
Detroit),  Bosseron  the  younger,  and  M.  Le  Gras  are  on  the  best  pos- 
sible fooling  with  the  rebels  at  Vincennes." — Hamilton  to  Cramahe, 
Michigan  Pioneer  and  Ilistoriad  Collections,  1883,  p.  289. 

^  De  Peyster  to  Carleton,  June  17,  1777,  Michigan  Pioneer  and 
Historicid  Collections,  vol.  x.,  p.  278;  Hamilton  to  Carleton,  March, 
1778,  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  vol.  ix.,  p.  432.  At 
the  Detroit  council,  on  June  29,  1778,  the  Illinois  Indians  present 
begged  Hamilton  to  believe  that  they  were  all  as  one  man  for  the 
English.  "Don't  imagine,"  they  said,  "that  although  we  go  for  rum 
to  the  Spaniards,  they  have  our  hearts  !" 

208 


Till':  QUEBEC  ACT  AND  THE  UEVULUTlUN 

known  as  Captain  Wliite  Eyes,  and  an  Indian  educate<l 
in  Virginia  and  called  Moutons,  had  the  insolence  to 
appear  at  Det'o'^  with  a  letter,  a  string,  and  a  belt 
from  the  ageni  f  the  Virginian  Congress,  soliciting 
the  confederacv  of  Western  Indians  to  go  to  a  confer- 
ence  at  Pittsburg,  llanulton,  angered  by  their  audac- 
ity, tore  their  letter,  cut  their  belts  in  the  presence  of 
the  assembled  savages,  and  senl^  them  out  of  the  settle- 
ment. The  messengers,  however,  had  brought  with 
them  a  copy  of  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  of  July  2Jr, 
1770,  containing  the  declaration  of  the  co  jnies  by 
which  they  entirely  threw  off  all  depende'  on  the 
mother -country.'  In  such  fashion  was  t  ^^rth  of 
the  new  nation  announced  at  the  capital  of  the  North- 
west ! 

On  April  5,  1778,  Charles  Beaubien  and  young  Lor- 
imer  reached  Detroit  with  a  fine  string  of  captives. 
Starting  from  the  Miamis  early  in  February,  they  easily 
prevailed  upon  fourscore  Shawanese  to  accompany  them 
on  a  raid  up  the  Kentucky  River,  where  they  were  so 
fortunate  as  to  find  Daniel  Boone  and  twenty-six  of  \\\?> 
men  making  salt  at  the  salt-lick  near  their  fort.  The 
Indians  so  completely  surprised  the  settlers  that,  with- 
out the  loss  of  a  single  man,  they  brought  the  party  off ; 
but  no  inducement  could  lead  the  cautious  savages  to 
attempt  the  fort.  To  Hamilton,  Boone  told  a  pitiful 
story  :  because  of  the  Indians  the  settlers  had  been  un- 
able to  sow  grain,  and  by  June  there  would  be  not  a 
morsel  of  food  in  Kentucky ;  clothing  was  not  to  be 
had;   nor  was  relief  to   be  expected   from   Congress. 

'  Hamilton  to  Lord  Dartmoutli,  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical 
Collections,  1886,  p.  269.     Hamilton  made  the  mistake  of  one  day  in 
the  date  of  the  Gazette.     There  was  no  paper  published  on  the  25th, 
Hamilton's  date  ;  but  the  regular  weekly  issue  appeared  on  the  24tb. 
o  209 


THK  NoirriiwKsT  undkk  tiiki:i:   ilau.- 

'* Their  dilemma,"  says  Hamilton,  "will  probably  in] 
duce  them  to  trust  to  the  savages,  who  have  shown  s( 
much  humanity  to  their  prisoners,  and  come  to  this| 
place  before  winter."  ' 

Tloone  was  about  forty-four  years  old,  had  piissed  his 
life  in  the  forest,  and  his  braverv  and  k now h dire  of 
woodcraft  endeared  him  to  the  Indians  no  less  than  to 
the  pioneers,  whose  leader  he  was.  Hamilton  would 
have  paid  heavily  for  l^oone's  ransom,  but  the  Indian 
family  that  had  adopted  him  refused  to  give  him  up." 
For  five  months  he  endured  captivity;  but  on  learning 
that  a  large  force  was  about  to  attack  Boonsborough, 
he  eluded  his  captors,  and  in  five  days  travelled  one 
hundred  and  sixty  miles,  having  eaten  but  one  meal 
during  his  entire  journey.  Happily  his  escaj)e  diverted 
the  Indians  from  their  purpose. 

In  June,  1778,  a  grand  council  of  Indians  assembled  on 
the  banks  of  the  broad  Detroit.  There  were  Chippewas 
from  Saginaw  Bay,  Huron s  fi'om  Sandusky,  and  Potta- 
watomies  from  St.  Joseph ;  there  were  Mohawks,  Del- 

'  Hamilton  to  Carleton,  April,  1778,  Michigan  Pioneer  and  ITistor- 
icfd  Collections,  vol.  ix.,  p.  435. 

■^  "On  the  10th  day  of  March  following,  I  and  ten  of  my  men  were 
conducted  by  forty  Indians  to  Detroit,  where  we  arrived  on  the  30th 
day,  and  were  treated  by  Governor  Hamilton,  the  British  commander 
of  that  post,  Willi  great  humanity.  During  our  travels,  the  Indians 
entertained  me  well ;  and  their  affection  for  me  was  so  great  that  they 
utterly  refused  to  leave  me  there  with  the  others,  although  the  gov- 
ernor offered  them  £100  sterling  for  me,  on  purpose  to  give  me  a 
parole  to  go  home.  Several  English  gentlemen  there,  being  sensible 
of  my  adverse  fortune,  and  touched  with  human  sympathy,  generously 
offered  me  a  friendly  supply  for  my  wants,  which  I  refused,  with  many 
thanks  for  their  kindness,  adding  that  I  never  expected  it  would  he 
in  my  power  to  recompense  such  unmerited  generosity." — "Filson's 
Adventures  of  Colonel  Daniel  Boon,"  in  Imlay's  Topographical  De- 
scription of  the  Western  Territory  (Loudon,  1797),  p.  347. 

210 


GRAVE  OF    DAMEL   BOUNE 


Tin:   QL'KHKC   ACT   AND   TIIK    UKVOLUTION 

II wares,  iuul  Senecas,  eager  for  nun  :in<l  pivsonls;  ami 
there  were  the  Ottawas  and  the  Iliiinns  from  thf  vll- 
hiires  across  the  river.  To  meet  ami  ^rroet  tliein  were 
Lieutenant- (iovernor  Ilaniilton,  who  by  tliis  time  had 
learned  to  thmee  the  war-(hin(je,  to  chant  the  war-song, 
and  to  handle  the  wanipuni-helts;  also  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Edward  Abbott  from  Vincennes,  who,  regarding 
discrcHion  the  better  part  of  valor,  had  slipped  away  to 
Detroit, so  tiiat  the  ln<lianb  should  not  find  him  without 
a  sup|)ly  of  presents  when  tlu^y  returned  from  their 
winter  hunt;  and  the  Indian  agents  Hay  and  McKee; 
and  Captain  Lernoult  and  Lieutenant  Caldwell,  of  the 
kinir's  regiment  stationed  at  Detroit;  and  ei<dit  inter- 
preters,  among  whom  was  Simon  (iirty.  Lately  esca|)ed 
from  Fort  Pitt,  Girty  and  McKee  were  now  just  begin- 
ning their  notorious  career  as  partisans.' 

During  thv3  period  of  more  than  a  (puirter  of  a  cen- 
tury from  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  the  brothers 
Simon,  James,  and  George  Girty,  together  with  Alex- 
ander McKee,  played  a  part  in  the  history  of  the 
Northwest  far  more  important  tban  did  any  British 
commander.  In  the  estimation  of  the  Americans,  Si- 
mon Girt-y  was  the  arch-fiend  of  the  realms  of  savagery. 
There  were  many  redeeming  traits  about  AIcKee,  with 
whom  the  somewhat  fastidious  De  Peyster  associated 
o  terms  of  intimacy;  but  the  instances  in  which  Simon 
Girty  showed  humanity  served  only  by  contrast  to 
blacken  an  ingeniously  diabolical  career.  The  responsi- 
bility of  the  English  commandants  for  border  cruelties 
lies  not  so  much  in  their  ])ersonal  acts  as  in  their  em- 
ployment of  such  agents  to  do  their  work. 


'  The  minutes  of  the  council  tire  given  in  the  Michigan  Pioneer  and 
Historical  Collections,  vol.  ix.,  p.  442  et  seq. 

211 


THE    NOUTilWEST    UNDKU    TIIIiEK    FLAGb 

The  Girtys  were  sons  of  that  Simon  Ghty  who,  com- 
ing from  Ireland  at  some  duto  before  IT^JT,  made  his 
liome  on  the  hanks  of  the  Sns(|U('lianna,  and  eii^^aged 
in  Indian  triidc  Marryin**;  Mary  Newton  at  Fori  I)u- 
(jut'snc,  his  second  son,  Simon,  was  horn  in  ITU,  »Iames 
was  born  two  years  hiter,  and  (ieorge  in  1745.  in  lTr>I 
the  ekler  Girty  was  killed  in  a  drnnken  revel  bv  an  ^.nl- 
ian  known  as  The  Fish,  who  in  tnrn  was  slain  by  oohn 
Tnrner,  and  as  a  reward  the  latter  reccMviid  the  hand  of 
the  WMdow.  In  1750,  when  the  entin  '  mily  were  taken 
prisoners  by  the  Indians  and  the  French  under  Iseyon 
de  Villiere,  Turner,  as  the  slayer  of  The  Fish,  was  put  to 
death  by  torture,  in  the  presence  of  his  family.  After 
repeatedly'  witnessing  the  most  revolting  cruelties  prac- 
tised on  prisoners,  the  family  was  separated,  Simon 
being  adopted  by  the  Senecas,  James  by  the  Shawa- 
nese,  anil  George  by  the  Delawares;  but  in  1759  they 
were  reunited  at  the  surrender  of  prisoners  after  the 
treaty  of  Easton.  As  opportunity  offered,  the  Girty 
boys  put  to  use  their  understanding  of  Indian  dialects, 
acting  as  intei'preters,  traders,  or  hunters,  their  head- 
quarters being  at  Pittsburg.  Simon,  finding  Dr.  Con- 
oily  a  congenial  spirit,  espoused  Virginia's  side  of  the 
boundary  ilispute,  and  was  arrested  on  some  charge,  at 
the  instance  of  Arthur  St.  Clair,  the  leader  of  the  Penn- 
sylvanians.  When  Lord  Dunmore  reached  Pittsburg 
he  made  Simon  Girty  one  of  his  scouts,  and  Girty  it 
was  who  received  from  Logan  the  celebrated  message, 
as  has  been  told. 

After  the  Dunmore  war,  Girty  was  a  second  lieuten- 
ant in  ConoUv's  militia,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revo- 
lution  drove  both  Dunmore  and  Conollvfrom  the  scene, 
restoring  to  Fort  Pitt  the  name  which  the  auibitious 
governor  had  attempted  to  exchange  for  his  own.    Con- 

212 


THE    U\SEliLC    ACT    AND    TIIK    REVOLUTION 


L^ress  hiLvintr  cr(\'ite(l  an  Indian  (lenarluicnt,  CJirtv  was 
(Muploytul  as  an  interpreter  by  the  a<(ent,  Cieor^e  Mor- 
«r;in,  and  in  that  capacity  was  doubtless  [)resent  at  tlie 
conference  held  at  Fort  Pitt,  on  July  6,  1775,  when  the 
Virginian  coniniandant,  Cai)tain  Keville,  secured  the 
promise  of  Mingoes,  T)(^la, wares,  and  Shawanese  that 
they  would  remain  neutial,  provided  their  rights,  both 
to  the  soverein:ntv  and  to  the  lands  of  their  country, 
were  not  invaded  by  either  the  Americans  or  the  Brit- 
ish.' 

For  ill -behavior  Girty  lost  his  place  as  interpreter; 
but  the  Continental  general,  Edward  Hand,  on  taking 
possession  of  Fort  Pitt,  early  in  1777,  commissioned  him 
a  second  lieutenant  and  employed  him  actively  among 
the  Indians.  Girty 's  loyalty  was  suspected,  although 
his  work  was  efiicient;  and  in  1778  he  fell  under  the  in- 
fiuence  of  Alexander  McKee,  who  had  been  Sir  William 
Johnson's  deputy  during  the  two  years  prior  to  the 
superintendent's  death  in  1774.  McKee  was  a  native 
of  Pennsylvania,  a  trader  of  w^ealth  and  position ;  but 
possibly  because  of  his  position  as  crown  deputy,  sus- 
picion attached  to  him,  and  he  had  been  placed  on 
parole   by   General  Hand.     Joined   with   McKee   w^as 

^  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  August  7,  1776.  At  this  conference  were 
present  Kiasliuta,  a  Mingo  chief  just  returned  from  Niagara  with 
h(>lts  from  tl)e  Six  Nations  commanding  neutrality ;  Captain  Pipe,  a 
Delaware  chief,  whose  career  we  shall  follow;  The  Shade,  a  Shawa- 
nese chief,  and  She-ge-naba,  a  sou  of  Pontiac.  The  latter  received 
from  Morgan  a  fine  gun,  as  a  reward  for  having  saved  the  life  of  a 
young  mun  named  Field,  the  son  of  Colonel  John  Field  who  was 
killed  at  Point  Pleasant.  Pontiae's  son  alone  of  those  present  re- 
mained neutral,  and  refused  to  obey  Hamilton's  summons  to  the  war- 
path. His  home  was  at  Fallen  Timbers,  the  site  of  Wayne's  victory. 
See  letter  from  Lyman  C.  Draper  in  Purkman  MSS.,  volume  entitled 
French  Documents. 

213 


THE    NOUTUWEST    UNDEU    TilKEE    FLAGS 

another  Pennsylvania  trader,  Matthew  Elliott,  an  Irish- 
man by  birth,  who  was  on  such  friendly  terms  with  the 
Shawanese  that  they  made  him  their  messenger  to  Lord 
Dunmore  when  they  sued  for  peace  after  their  defeat 
at  Point  Pleasant.  On  the  28th  of  March,  1778,  just 
as  General  Hand  was  about  to  send  a  force  to  arrest 
McKee,  that  worthy,  together  with  Elliott,  Girty,  and 
a  few  others,  escaped  to  Detroit.  Doubtless  they  knew 
that  a  warm  welcome  would  await  them,  for  during  the 
previous  March  Elliott  had  been  captured  and  brought  to 
Hamilton,  who  sent  him  to  Quebec,  whence  he  returned 
to  Pittsburg  on  parole.  Yet,  however  important  these 
three  men  might  consider  themselves,  even  they  could 
not  have  apprehended  the  consternation  their  desertion 
caused  throughout  the  frontier  regions,  from  the  head- 
waters of  the  Alleghany  even  to  the  Mississippi ;  it 
would  have  been  impossible  for  the  British  to  hav^ 
selected  three  more  effective  tools  for  the  purposes  •  r 
border  warfare.' 

The  council  having  been  opened  with  prayer,'  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor Hamilton  congratulated  the  assembled  Ind- 
ians on  their  almost  uniform  success  in  their  raids,  on 
the  number  of  their  prisoners,  and  the  far  greater  niim- 
her  of  scalj)s.  He  reminded  them  that  they  had  driven 
the  rebels  to  a  cjreat  distance  from  the  Indian  huntino^- 
grounds,  and  had  forced  them  to  the  coast,  where  they 
had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  king's  troops ;  he  an- 

'  Butterfield's  History  of  the  Girtys  (Cincinnati,  1890).  This  most 
painstaking  work  corrects  innumerable  errors  in  regard  to  the  rene- 
gades of  tlie  Ohio;  and  with  conscientiousness  Mr.  Butterfield  has 
not  hesitated  to  contradict  his  own  statements  made  in  previous  pub- 
lications. 

■^  "Hi»ving  returned  thanks  to  the  Great  Spirit,  I  must  thank  you 
all  for  having  attended  my  call,"  began  Hamiltoq 

214 


THE   QUEBEC    ACT   xVND   TUE   REVOLUTION 

nounced  the  recall  of  Carleton  and  the  appointment  of 
IJaldimand,  "  well  known  through  that  country  as  the 
chief  warrior  at  New  York,  a  brave  officer,  a  wise  man, 
esteemed  by  all  who  know  him  ;'■  he  took  from  the  Ind- 
ians the  silv^ered  medals  given  to  them  by  the  French, 
and  hung  about  their  necks  those  furnished  by  the  Eng- 
lish ;  and  in  the  name  of  the  king  he  put  the  axe  into  the 
hands  of  his  Indian  children,  "'  in  order  to  drive  the  reb- 
els from  their  land,  while  his  ships-of-war  and  armies 
cleared  them  from  the  sea.'' 

To  these  exhortations  the  Indians  made  answer  after 
their  own  fashion  :  they  boasted  their  fortitude  in  with- 
standing the  seductions  of  Virginians  and  Spanish ;  and 
with  a  diplomacy  that  is  still  current  among  nations, 
they  promised  on  their  return  to  refer  the  whole  matter 
to  their  war -chiefs,  "who  know  how  to  act  in  war." 
Forced  to  be  satisfied  with  these  equivocal  answers, 
Hamilton  covered  the  council-fire,  and  the  council  ad- 
journed to  partake  of  one  of  those  riotous  feasts  whose 
expense  so  wrung  the  heart  of  the  economical  Haldimand. 

The  last  canoe  of  the  returning  Indians  had  not  dis- 
appeared behind  Montreal  Point  before  an  express  ar- 
rived from  the  Illinois  country,  saying  that  a  party  of 
rebels,  in  number  about  three  hundred,  having  taken 
prisoner  M.  de  Eocheblave,  the  commander  at  Fort 
Gage,  had  laid  him  in  irons  and  had  exacted  from  the 
inhabitants  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Congress.  Also 
the  express  announced  that  a  detachment  had  been  sent 
to  Cahokia ;  and  even  as  the  messenger  was  leaving 
Kaskaskia  "  one  Gibault,  a  French  priest,  had  his  horse 
ready  saddled  to  go  to  St.  Yincennes  to  receive  the  sub- 
mission of  the  inhabitants  in  the  name  of  the  rebels."  * 

'  Hamilton  to  Carleton,  August  8, 1778. 

215 


TlIK    NORTHWEST     UNDKK    TlfliKK     FLAG 

This  was  too  much  for  Governor  Ilamiltorrs  warlikj 
spirit.  He  had  been  forced  to  yield  to  the  tamer  coiinl 
cils  of  his  suj>eriors  in  opposition  to  his  ',:lan  to  re(hic(j 
Fort  Pitt;'  but  here  was  an  insult  that  he  could  not 
brook.  To  have  a  band  of  rebels  invade  his  own  terri- 
tory, lay  one  of  his  commandants  in  irons  and  confin( 
him  in  a  pig-pen  was  too  much  for  British  blood. 

Leaving  Detroit  in  the  hurry  and  bustle  of  prepara- 
tion for  an  expedition  to  the  Illinois  country,  we  now 
turn  our  attention  to  the  events  leading  up  to  Chirk's 
capture  of  the  posts  on  the  Mississippi  and  the  Wabash. 

The  peace  etfected  by  Lord  Dunmore,  in  1774,  once 
more  had  opened  Kentucky  to  settlers,  who  began  to 
Hock  to  that  region  and  to  take  up  lands  purchased 
from  the  Cherokees  by  Colonel  Richard  Henderson." 
The  company  set  up  courts,  gave  laws,  organized  a  mili- 
tia— in  short,  erected  the  proprietary  government  of  the 
colony  of  Transylvania.  The  commander  of  the  mili- 
tia was  George  Rogers  Clark,  a  bold  and  adventurous 
surveyor  of  twenty-two,  who  was  boi'n  in  Albemarle 
County,  Virginia,  two  years  before  Braddock's  defeat, 
and  who  had  seen  military  service  with  the  Dunmore 
expedition.  The  Kentuckians  had  outgrown  the  idea 
of  quit-rents;  the  lands  they  cleared,  cultivated,  and 
defended  were  their  lands  in  fee-simple;  and  when  the 
company  showed  its  power  by  attempting  to  raise  rent- 
als, the  people  elected  Clark  and  Gabriel  John  elones 
members  of  the  Assembly  of  Virginia.  That  body 
had  adjourned  before  the  new  representatives  com- 
pleted their  hazardous  journey  through  the  moun- 
tains; but  Clark  had  a  message  for  the  new  governor, 

'  "  Haldimand  to  Hamilton,"  August  6, 1778. 
'^  By  the  treaty  of  Watauga,  March,  1775. 

216 


GEOHGE    R0GP:I{S   (I.  A  UK 

(Plioto5:fraplied  by  L.  Herj^nian.  Louisville.  Kciifinky) 


THE  QUEBEC  ACT  AND  THE  UEVOLUTION' 

"a  certain  Patrick  Henry,  of  Hanover  County,"  as 
Lord  Dunmore  contemptuously  styled  his  successor.' 
In  one  thing,  at  least,  the  two  men  agreed  ;  botii  the 
last  governor  of  the  king  and  the  lirst  governor  of  the 
people  were  bent  on  extending  the  authority  of  Vir- 
trinia  throu^j^hout  the  lands  included  within  lier  ancient 
boundaries. 

Henry  being  ill  at  his  home,  thither  Clark  bent  his 
steps.     Picture  the  scene  :  the  ardent  j^outh,  with  tall, 
well-knit  frame  and  flashing  eye,  pacing  up  and  down 
the  sick-chamber  of  the  no  less  ardent  governor,  and 
pouring  forth  a  torrent  of  ambition,  hope,  and  pathos — 
of  ambition  that  his  native  commonwealth  should  win 
the  glory  and  the  gain  of  conquering  the  Northwest  for 
Virginia ;  of  hope  that  the  Virginians  of  the  tide-water 
would  not  leave  their  brothers  beyond  the  mountains 
to  be  cut  off  by  prowling  savages   led   by   renegade 
whiter ',   and  of  pathos  almost   beyond    words   in    the 
grim  story  of  ambushed  paths,  of  red  demons  lurking 
behind  garden-bush  or  even  behind  fort-gate,  ready  with 
the  brutal  tomahawk  to  deal  the  swift  blow,  and  disap- 
pear into  the  dark  forest!     The  warm-hearted  governor 
quickly  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Kentuckians,  and  the 
two  men  wruno:  from  the  reluctant  council  a  laro^e  gift 
of  powder  for  the  protection  of  the  frontiers.     AVhen 
the  assemblv  convened,  Clark  and  Jones  were  admitted, 
and  before  the  session  ended  thev  succeeded  in  havino^ 
\  created  the  county  of  Kentucky,  thus  putting  an  end 
j  to  the  Colony  of   Transylvania.      This   accomplished, 
I  they  set  off,  by  way  of  Fort  Pitt,  for  the  dark  and 
I  bloody  ground  they  had  come  to  call  home." 

I  '  Moses  Coit  Tyler's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  p.  189. 

I  ■'  Mann  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  39  et  seq.    Clark  and  Jones  wore  not 

I  allowed  to  vote.    They  accomplished  the  inclusion  of  the  Kentucky 

i  217 


TllK    NOKTHWKST    UXDEU    TIIIiHK    FLAG.- 

On  his  return,  Chirk  found  tliat  the  natural  hostility 
of  the  Intlians  liad  been  increased  both  in  intensity  am 
in  sagacity  by  the  leadershij)or  [)aid  agents  of  Enghini 
and  by  tlie  British  presents  that  sent  the  savages  to  wai 
and  welcomed  tlieir  return,  scalp  laden,  lie  saw  whai 
was  apparent  to  all  his  fellows:  that  so  long  as  th* 
British  held  Detroit,  Kaskaskia,  Vinconnes,  and  the  con 
necting  forts,  so  long  would  England  be  able  to  keeji 
up  an  effective  warfare  along  the  rear  of  the  colonies. 
lie  did  what  no  one  else  thoufjht  of  doino: :  he  seni 
Moore  and  Dunn  into  the  Illinois  country  as  spies. 
Armed  with  their  report  he  again  presented  himself  be- 
fore Governor  Henry,  and  on  December  10,  1777,  he 
laid  before  him  a  plan  of  concpiest  that  should  balance 
in  the  south  the  great  northern  victory  of  Saratoga, 
over  which  the  whole  country  was  rejoicing.  Into  their 
councils  Governor  Henry  called  George  Wythe,  George 
Mason,  and  Thomas  Jefferson;  and  by  their  influential 
aid  Clark,  without  trouble,  obtained  two  sets  of  orders- 
one  public,  ordering  him  to  defend  Kentucky;  the  other 
secret,  ordering  an  attack  on  the  British  post  of  Kas- 
kaskia. Clothed  with  all  the  authority  he  could  wish, 
with  £1200  in  depreciated  paper,  and  an  order  on  the 
commandant  at  Fort  Pitt  for  ammunition  and  boats, 
Clark  set  forth  to  raise  west  of  the  mountains  a  force 
with  which  to  conquer  the  Northwest. 

As  fortune  would  have  it,  Clark,  on  his  wav  down  the 
Ohio,  learned  of  the  aUiance  between  France  and  the 
colonies;  and  this  information  was  worth  as  much  to 
him  as  a  heavv  reinforcemen-t.  From  John  Duff  and  a 
party  of  hunters  whom  he  met  near  the  mouth  of  the 


country  notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the  president  of  the  Tran- 
sylvania Company,  Colonel  Henderson. 

218 


PATHICK   IIENIIY 


THE   (^UKIiKC    ACT    AND   TIIK    KKVuLUTloN 

Tennessee,  Chirk  learned  that  ^^.  Roehehhive  had  no  ap- 
prehensions of  an  attack.  Indeed,  it  was  in  the  highest 
degree  irnprol)al)le  that  from  the  meagre  settlements, 
separated  as  they  were  by  three  or  four  hundred  miles 
from  the  nearest  post  of  their  friends  at  Fort  Pitt,  and 
by  six  hundred  miles  from  the  seat  of  government  in 
Virginia,  a  force  should  issue  against  the  strong  British 
posts  of  the  Illinois,  placed  in  the  midst  of  powerful 
Indian  tribes  hostile  to  the  Americans.  The  very  au- 
dacity of  the  plan  secured  success.  Ap[)roaching  Kas- 
kaskia  on  the  evening  of  July  4,  177S,  Clark  sent  a  por- 
tion of  his  command  across  the  river  to  the  town,  while 
he  himself,  at  the  head  of  a  handful  of  troops,  walked 
quietly  in  at  the  open  postern  gate  of  Fort  Gage.  Act- 
ing on  those  theatrical  impulses  which  were  a  large  part 
of  his  stock  in  trade,  he  completely  terrified  the  inhabi- 
tants; and  then,  having  led  them  to  expect  another  ex- 
|)ulsion  like  that  of  the  Acadians,  he  assured  them  that 
Americans  *'  disdained  to  make  war  on  helpless  inno- 
cence ";  and  that  it  was  simply  to  protect  their  own  wives 
and  children  that  they  had  ''  penetrated  to  this  strong- 
hold of  British  and  Indian  barbarity.*"  AVhen  the  people 
of  Kaskaskia  learned  that  neither  their  lives  nor  their 
property  were  at  stake  they  joyfully  set  the  church-bells 
ringing,  and  then  even  offered  to  go  with  Major  Bow- 
man to  inform  their  relatives  and  friends  at  Cahokia  of 
the  good  tidings.  There,  too,  the  terror  inspired  by  the 
unexpected  coming  of  the  terrible  *' Big  Knives"  was 
speedily  turned  into  huzzas  for  freedom  and  for  the 
Americans;  and  thus,  without  the  shedding  of  a  drop  of 
blood,  the  Illinois  country  w^as  conquered  for  Virginia. 
Vincennes  now  remained  to  be  dealt  with ;  and  here 
Clark  was  puzzled.  His  force  was  not  sufficient  to  hold 
the  towns  he  had  taken,  even  with  the  help  of  his  Span- 

219 


Till-:    XOIITIIW  KST    UNDER    TIIUKK    TLAGs 

isli  fricfids  across  the  Mississippi;  und  at  any  inoinon' 
tlio  Itnlians,  l(?(l  by  tlie  Kn«5Misli,  mi^^lit  cut  iiiin  olT  from 
his  base.  At  this  juncture,  Father  Gibault,  a  priest 
whose  parish  extendtMl  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Ohio, 
olfrrcd  to  undertake  to  convert  the  people  of  the  Wa- 
bash post  to  the  American  cause,  a  proposition  readily 
accepted  by  Chirk  and  faithfully  carried  out  by  this 
member  of  the  church  militant.  Electing  a  comman« 
ant,  the  people  of  C).  Post  (as  Vincennes  was  commonly 
called)  ran  up  over  the  fort  the  strange  fhig  of  the  V'ii- 
ginians,  much  to  thr;  surpiise  of  the  Indians,  to  whom 
explanation  was  made  that  their  old  father,  the  Kinn^ 
of  France,  was  come  to  life  again,  and  that  if  the^^  did 
not  wish  their  land  to  run  red  with  blood  they  must 
make  peace  with  the  Americans.  Successful  beyond 
his  most  sanguine  expectations,  Clark  formed  a  French 
militia  company  at  Kaskaskia;  placed  Captain  Williams 
in  command  of  the  fort;  continued  Captain  Bowman  at 
Cahokia;  sent  Colonel  William  Linn  to  build  at  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio  the  fort  that  has  developed  into  the 
city  of  Louisville;  and  announced  his  conquest  to  Vir- 
ginia,  accompanying  his  message  with  the  vituperative 
captive  Rocheblave,  as  an  evidence  of  good  faith.  In 
October,  1778,  Virginia  acknowledged  her  responsibility 
in  the  matter  by  establishing  the  County  of  Illinois,  em- 
bracinn:  all  the  chartered  limits  of  the  colony  w^est  of  the 
Ohio  River.  Colonel  John  Todd  was  made  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  county,  and  American  civil  government 
began  in  that  region.' 

*  William  Hayden  English's  Conquest  of  the  Country  Northwest  of 
the  River  Ohio.  G«n'ernor  English's  volumes  are  a  perfect  storehouse 
of  information  concerning  Clark  and  his  associates.  It  is  necessary, 
however,  to  verify  his  statements,  because  of  the  great  discrepancy  in 
the  accounts.  A  suggestive  article  is  Carl  E.  Boyd's  "County  of 
Illinois,"  American  Historical  Review,  .July,  1899. 

220 


TIIK   QrKi;EC    ATT    ANh   Til  K    Ki:V(»LrTIOX 

We  now  turn  noitliw.inl  to  tijo  Straits  of  ^^aclvinac, 
the  in('ctinm^-j>Ia(M»  of  lakes  Huron  and  ^Iiclli«5^•ln,  waters 
iirst  traviTsed  by  Nicolet,  and  afterwards  tin;  si*ene  of 
Mai'(|uette's  labor's  in  slie[)ljerding  his  Irixjuois driven 
Hock.  From  the  last  resting;  -  place  of  th»»  great  ex- 
plorer one  looks  across  waters  hurnished  by  the  sum- 
mer sun,  or  in  winter ^azes  along  the  pathway  of  the 
ice-breakinsf  steamer,  to  the  ever-shiftinfj:  sands  of  Old 
^Mackinaw,  the  scene  of  tin;  massacre  of  17*53.  Theh. 
within  a  rude  stockade  were  gathered  the  cabins  of  the 
most  important  fur-trading  post  possessed  by  the  Brit- 
ish at  the  outbreak  of  the  itevolution. 

Thitlier  Captain  Arent  Schuyler  de  Pevster  of  the 
Eighth,  or  King's  regiment  of  foot,  set  out  from  Quebec 
in  the  May  of  1774,  with  a  commission  not  only  to  take 
command  of  the  post,  but  also  to  enter  upon  the  much 
more  difficult  task  of  superintending  the  Lake  Indians, 
comprising  sixteen  or  more  tribes  roaming  forest  and 
prairie  on  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the  ( )hio  even 
to  the  unknown  regions  north  of  Lake  Superior.  Born 
in  tlie  City  of  New  York,  on  June  27,  173(),  De  Peys- 
ter's  baptism  was  attended  by  his  two  uncles,  Philip 
Van  Cortlandt  and  Peter  Schuvler  and  bv  his  aunt.  Eve 
Bayard,  who  there  assumed  those  official  responsibili- 
ties required  to  give  a  fitting  start  in  the  world  to  the 
scion  of  a  familv  that  traced  its  lineatje  far  back  of 
that  Johannes  de  Peyster  who  came  to  New  Amster- 
dam in  1633.  As  a  second  son,  the  youth  was  destined 
for  the  army,  and  was  sent  to  England  for  his  pre- 
liminary training.  Entering  the  service  in  the  year  of 
►raddock's  defeat,  in  1768  he  came  with  his  regiment 
fto  Canada.  Of  commanding  stature  and  soldier-like 
appearance,  he  possessed  an  affability  of  manner  that 
'endeared  him  to  his  fellow-otficers,  and  also  gave  him 

221 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

an  unusual  control  over  the  savages.  Without  being 
conspicuously  great,  he  never  failed  to  fill  with  real 
credit  every  position  to  which  he  was  assigned. 

On  his  journey  to  the  ends  of  civilization  the  young 
captain  was  accompanied  by  his  wife,  a  daughter  of 
Prevost  Blair,  of  Dumfries,  Scotland ;  and  their  voyage 
forms  the  theme  of  one  of  those  poems  of  his,  in  which 
the  entire  absence  of  the  poetic  quality  is  atonec.  for  by 
the  abundance  of  interestin^j:  facts.  Mal'inf?  the  slow 
passage  up  the  St.  Lawrence  in  an  open  boteau,  they 
crossed  the  Ontario  in  the  ship-of-war  named  for  the 
lake,  and  at  Fort  Erie  they  embarked  on  the  sloo  )-of-war 
Duniiiore^  which  carried  them  to  their  destination.  For 
six  yearr  this  devoted  couple  were  the  first  English- 
speaking  people  to  exemplify  in  the  northern  wilderness 
the  blessings  of  a  Christian  home. 

On  June  27,  1776,  the  Indians  about  Michilimacki- 
nac  received  through  the  medium  of  Father  Matavit, 
the  priest  of  the  Two  Mountains,  strings  of  wampum 
from  St.  Lawrence  River  savages,  who  announced  that 
Montreal  was  in  possession  of  the  Americans  and  asked 
aid,  iest  the  Indians  be  driven  quite  out  of  Canada.  On 
carrying  the  news  to  the  commandant,  they  were  told 
to  look  after  their  hunting  until  they  heard  from  Sir 
Guy  Carleton.  A  few  days  later  an  express  came  from 
the  Six  Nations,  calling  the  Lake  Indians  to  a  council 
at  Connesedaga;  and  when  De  Peyster  fount!  traders 
bearing  passes  signed  by  General  Worcester  and  Ben- 
jamin Franklin,  stipulating  that  they  should  furnish  no 
supplies  to  the  garrison,  he  set  himself  to  the  task  of 
sending  reinforcements  to  Montreal. 

On  the  day  that  the  independence  of  the  colonies  was 
proclaimed  at  Philadelphia,  De  Peyster  placed  Charles 
de  Langlade  in  charge  of  a  force  of  savages  and  Cana- 


^^<^ 


THE    QUEJiEC    ACT   AND   THE    UEVOLUTION 

Jiaii  volunteers,  with  orders  to  report  to  the  commander 
of  the  kind's  troops  in  the  neighborhood  of  Montreal ; 
to  annoy  the  rebels  wherever  he  might  meet  them,  and 
in  everything  to  conduct  himself  with  his  usual  pru- 
dence and  moderation.'  Montreal  having  been  recov- 
ered, and  the  Indians  not  having  gone  prepared  to  spend 
the  winter,  Carleton  gave  them  presents,  and  promptly 

(  sent  them  home,  with  orders  to  return  in  the  spring  if 
wanted.    Langlade,  however,  remained  below  during  fhe 

Nearly  winter,  arid  returned  north  in  February  with  an 
order  to  bring  back  two  hundred  chosen  Indians  for  the 
Burgoyne  expedition.  The  difficulty  was  not  so  much 
to  obtain  the  necessary  force  as  ''  to  prevent  the  whole 
country  from  going  down  " ;  for  the  presents,  the  med- 
als, the  gorgets,  and  especially  the  rum  furnished  by 

I  the  British  were  to  the  eager  Indians  but  a  foretaste  of 
the  plunder  in  store  for  them  when  once  they  should 
take  the  war-path.  Moreover,  he  was  indeed  a  faint- 
hearted Indian  who  would  not  follow  where  Langlade 
led. 

For  length  and  variety  of  service,  and  for  successful 
leadership  of  Indians  in  war,  America  has  never  known 
the  equal  of  Charles  de  Langlade.  Langlade's  great- 
grandfather, Pierre  Mouet,  landlord  of  M;iras,  and  first 
known  as  Mouet  de  Maras,  was  born  of  a  family  located 

.  in  Castel  Sarraisin,  in  Basse  Guyenne,  France ;  and  in 

J 1668  he  came  to  settle  at  Three  Rivers,  then  a  most  in- 
fluential trading-post.     His  eldest  son,  Pierre,  like  his 

'  The  correspondence   between  Carleton  iind  Captain   de  Peyster 

is  to  be  found  partly  in  the  "  Haldimand  Papers,"  printed  in  vol.  x. 

[  of  the  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Ilistorical  Collections  (1876) ;  and   partly 

;  in  the  appendix  to  Miscellanies  by  an  Officer  {CiAoxiaX  Arent  Schuyler  de 

Peyster),  by  General  J.  Watts  de  Peyster  (New  York,  1888).     I  ara  in- 

l  debted  to  General  de  Peyster  for  his  courtesy  in  furnishing  to  me 

many  documents  and  pictures  nut  otherwise  available. 

223 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAG 

father,  was  an  ensign  in  the  army ;  and  also  like  hi 
father,  he  had  seven  children.  Of  this  family  the  sixth 
Augustin,  born  in  1703,  was  the  first  to  bear  the  name 
of  Sienr  de  Langlade.  Entering  the  fur-trade,  he  mad< 
headquarters  at  Michilimackinac,  where  he  married  tin 
widow  of  Daniel  Yilleneuve,  who  w^as  also  the  sister  ot 
the  principal  chief  of  the  Ottawas,  a  great  warrior  known 
as  The  Fork.  In  May,  1729,  Charles  Michel  de  Lang- 
lade was  born  and  duly  baptized.  From  the  energetic 
and  faithful  missionary  priest.  Father  Du  Jaunay,  young 
Langlade  obtained  the  beginnings  of  an  education  in  let- 
ters ;  and  at  an  age  before  boys  usually  leave  the  nur- 
sery he  took  his  first  lessons  in  Indian  warfare.  In  1734. 
when  the  French  were  seeking  the  aid  of  the  Upper 
Lake  savages  in  their  war  against  the  English  traders 
north  of  the  Ohio,  The  Fork,  moved  by  a  superstition 
not  unknown  even  in  these  days,  refused  to  take  up  the 
hatchet  unless  he  were  allowed  to  carry  with  him  his 
five  years  old  grandson,  in  the  capacity  of  what  now 
would  be  known  as  a  mascot ;  and  the  father,  on  being 
entreated,  sent  his  son  upon  the  war-path  with  the  in- 
junction never  to  dishonor  a  brave  name.  I^s'ever  was 
paternal  blessing  better  deserved  or  more  carefully  heed- 
ed; and  the  scalps  brought  back  to  adorn  the  wigwams 
of  Michilimackinac  testified  abundantly  to  the  success 
of  the  expedition.  The  superstitious  Indians  came  to 
look  upon  young  Langlade  as  one  on  whom  a  great  mani- 
tou  smiled ;  and  from  that  day  his  influence  over  the 
savages  exceeded  that  of  any  of  his  fellows.^ 

'  Memoir  of  Charles  de  Lanfjhide,  by  Joseph  Ta^se,  of  Ottawa,  Cana- 
da ;  translated  from  the  French  by  Mrs.  Sarah  Fairchild  Dean  ;  Wis- 
consin Historical  Society  Reports,  vol.  vii.,  1876.  This  sketch  is  based 
on  Lyman  C.  Draper's  report  of  the  narrative  of  Captain  Grigon,  also 
published  in  the  very  valuable  Wisconsin  Meparts. 

234 


THE  QUEBEC  ACT  ANT)  THE  HEVOLUTION 

Lauglade's  exploits  at  Piqua  and  at  Braddock's  defeat 
have  already  been  recorded  In  1757  Langlade  had 
joined  Montcalm,  and,  with  his  Lake  Indians,  was  at 
the  taking  of  Fort  George,  where  his  services  were  re- 
warded by  Yaudreuil  by  the  position  of  second  officer 
at  Michilimackinac,  under  a  brother  of  tiiat  Beaujeu 
who  was  killed  at  Fort  Duquesne.  In  June,  1759,  at 
I'^e  head  of  a  numerous  band  of  Indians,  Langlade  set 
out  for  Quebec,  where  his  skill  and  craft  suggested  a 
plan  of  cutting  off  Wolfe.  Had  M.  de  Levis  been  quick 
enough  to  act  upon  the  Canadian's  suggestions,  impor- 
tant results  might  have  followed ;  but  in  those  days 
fortune  every  w^iere  favored  the  English.  With  des- 
perate valor  Langlade  fought  through  the  battle  on  the 
Plains  of  Abraham,  calmly  smoking  his  pipe  during  the 
pauses  in  the  combat.  Saddened  by  the  death  of  two 
of  his  brothers,  and  mortified  by  what  he  called  the 
cowardly  surrender  of  Quebec,  Langlade  once  more  set 
his  face  north w^ard  ;  but  the  next  April  he  was  again  on 
hand  (this  time  with  the  king's  commission  as  a  lieuten- 
ant) to  fight,  with  the  Chevalier  de  Levis,  the  last  fight 
for  Fi-ench  supremacy  in  America.  It  was  a  short-lived 
triumph,  for  English  reinforcements  put  an  end  to  the 
struggle;  and  on  the  9th  of  September  Langlade  re- 
ceived from  Yaudreuil  the  announcement  of  the  sur- 
render of  Montreal,  coupled  with  the  hope  of  a  meeting 
in  France.  Langlade's  interests,  however,  bade  him  stay 
in  America ;  and  before  George  Etherington,  who  came 
to  Michilimackinac  in  1761,  as  the  first  English  com- 
mander, both  Augustin  and  Charles  de  Langlade  took 
the  oath  of  allegiance.  The  Englishman,  quick  to  ap- 
preciate the  advantages  of  the  powerful  support  of  the 
Langlades,  made  Charles  the  Indian  superintendent  for 
Green  Bay,  and  also  commander  of  the  militia — a  trust 
p  225 


THE    NOUTllWEST    UNDER    TIlllEE    FLAG^ 

that  was  never  dishonored.  The  massacre  at  Michili 
inaclvinac,  m  17G3,  might  have  been  averted  had  his 
warnings  been  heeded,  but  when  they  were  not,  he  did 
ail  he  could  to  save  those  who  were  not  butchered  in  the 
first  onslaught. 

The  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  found  Langlade  as 
ready  to  serve  England  as  he  had  been  ready  to  serve 
France  twenty-two  years  previous.     Hence  it  happened 
that  when  De  Peyster  was  called  upon  for  a  band  of 
Lake  Indians  to  accompany  the  Burgoyne  expedition, 
he  ordered  the  ox  for  the  barbecue,  opened  the  rum 
casks,  and  served  out  ammunition  to  the  bloody  Sioux, 
the  Iroquois  of  the  Northwest;   to  the  Chippevv^as  of 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  to  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  of  the  Illinois : 
to  the  Winnebagoes  and  Menominees  of  Wisconsin ;  and 
to  the  Ottawas  of  Lower  Michigan.     As  soon  as  the  ice 
left  the  Straits  of  Mackinac  in  the  spring  of  1776,  the 
flotilla  started  for  Georgian  Bay,  with  Langlade  lead- 
ing the  way.     Down  the  rapids  of  the  Ottawa  shot  the 
fleet  canoes;  thence  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  to  the 
present  town  of  Whitehall.     There  the  motley  troop 
joined  themselves  to  the  St.  Lawrence  Indians  under 
the  command  of  Langlade's  old  friend,  the  ChevaHer 
St.  Luc  la  Corne,  who  had  won  fame  in  Abercrombie's 
disastrous  tight  at  Ticonderoga,  and  had  been  spared  in 
the  battles  about  Quebec  for  that  later  service  he  was 
destined  to  render  the  Canadians  in  his  capacity  as  legis- 
lative councillor.     Burgoyne,  ignominiously  beaten  at 
Saratoga,  October  14, 1777,  was  disposed  to  charge  his 
failure  to  the  lack  of  support  given  by  the  Canadians 
and  Indians;  and  in  a  measure  he  was  correct.     The 
Canadians  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  who  had  no  heart  in 
the  struggle  against  the  colonists,  much  preferred  to 
stay  quietly  at  home,  and  let  England  attend  to  her 

226 


TIIK    QTKBEC   ACT   AND   T II  K    UKVOLUTION' 

own  quarrel.  As  for  the  Indians,  Burgoyne  gave  them 
to  understand  tluit  he  would  allow  neither  scalps  nor 
plunder;  and  in  so  doing  he  took  away  from  the  sav- 
ages all  incentive  to  fight.  Le  Due  summed  up  the 
matter  in  the  sentence :  ''  General  Burgoyne  is  a  brave 
man ;  but  he  is  as  heavy  as  a  German." 

In  1778  for  the  last  time  Langlade  took  up  arms. 
Word  had  come  to  De  Peyster  that  Hamilton  was  pre- 
paring for  an  expedition  to  recapture  Vincennes,  and  re- 
inforcements were  needed.  The  Indians,  summoned  to 
a  council  at  TArbre  Croche,  sulked  in  their  wigwams  at 
Milwaukee,  in  spite  of  Pierre  Queret's  belts  and  De  Vier- 
ville's  entreaties;  and  the  powerful  influence  of  the  vet- 
eran leader  himself  was  needed.  Going  from  village  to 
village,  he  built  in  each  a  lodge  with  an  opening  at 
either  end.  Then  calling  the  Indians  to  a  dog-feast,  and 
tearing  the  quivering  hearts  from  the  animals,  he  affixed 
one  to  a  stake  set  at  each  doorway.  Passing  around 
the  lodge,  at  each  door  he  tasted  the  dog-heart,  chant- 
ing the  war-song  meanwhile.  This  appeal  was  too  much 
even  for  the  stolidity  of  the  Indians;  they  sprang  to  the 
dance,  and  next  day  took  their  way  to  TArbre  Croche. 

We  left  the  Lieutenant-Governor  at  Detroit  busy  with 
preparations  for  the  expedition  he  had  undertaken  for 
the  recovery  of  the  Illinois  country.  There  has  been  a 
disposition  to  blame  Hamilton  personally  for  acting  with- 
out authority  in  his  government  of  Detroit,  in  undertak- 
ing an  important  expedition  without  the  express  orders 
from  his  immediate  superiors,  and  for  barbarity  in  war- 
fare. A  sufficient  answer  to  these  accusations  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  he  undertook  to  carry  out  the 
plans  and  desires  of  those  in  power  in  London,  and  that 
everything  he  did  met  with  their  approval.  Had  he 
been  endowed  with  more  ability,  or  had  he  been  pitted 

227 


THE    NOUTIIWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

against  American  leaders  of  ordinary  capacity,  he  would 
have  been  jusUtied  amply  by  success.  He  was  the  le- 
gitimate product  of  the  then  English  system  of  favor- 
itism, and  he  was  employed  in  supporting  a  cause  bad 
in  itself  and  entirely  out  of  harmony  with  the  natural 
trend  of  events,  so  that  he  simply  suffered  the  common 
lot  of  British  commanders  m  America.  Nominidly  in 
absolute  control  at  Detroit,  Hamilton  was  hampered  in 
the  administration  of  justice  by  the  fact  that  the  sal- 
aries allowed  forjudges  were  too  small  to  command  the 
services  of  worthy  men,  and  so  he  himself  was  forced  to 
administer  the  law.'  Moreover,  the  naval  control  of  the 
Upper  Lakes  was  committed  to  Colonel  Bolton  at  Niag- 
ara, and  the  troops  at  Detroit  were  under  the  command 
of  the  senior  military  officer ;  so  that  Hamilton,  although 
bred  in  the  army,  was  forced  to  ask  rather  than  to  com- 
mand the  support  of  the  naval  and  militar}^  forces. 
Again,  although  Sir  Guy  Carleton  was  nominally  in  con- 
trol of  the  entire  region  from  Quebec  to  the  Ohio,  Lord 
George  Germain  issued  directly  from  Whitehall  the 
orders  under  which  Lieutenant-Colonel  Barry  St.  Leger 
dealt  with  the  Six  Nations,  and  by  virtue  of  which  also 
Hamilton  called  the  Indian  councils  at  Detroit,  sent  out 
parties  of  the  savages  against  the  frontiers  of  Virginia 
and  Pennsylvania,  and  issued  a  proclamation  inviting 
"  loyal  subjects ''  to  join  the  king's  forces,  with  an  offer 
of  pay  and  land  bounties  for  so  doing — a  proclamation 

'  On  September  7,  1778,  Hamilton  and  Philip  Dejean  were  indicted 
at  Montreal  for  "  divers  unjust  and  illegal,  Terranical  and  felonious 
acts  and  things  contrary  to  good  Government  and  the  safety  of  His 
^Majesty's  Liege  subjects."  Haldimand  sent  the  presentments  to  Lord 
Germain  with  the  explanation  that  Hamilton's  usurpation  of  author- 
ity was  due  to  his  difficult  situation.  Lord  Germain  was  entirely  sat- 
isfied. This  correspondence  and  that  relative  to  the  naval  command 
is  to  be  found  in  the  Haldimand  Papers. 

228 


THE   QL'EDEC   ACT   AND   TiJE   UEVOLUTlON 

that,  when  found  upon  the  dead  bodies  of  partisans, 
naturally  embittered  the  Americans  against  the  signer.' 

Early  in  the  October  of  1778,  all  being  in  readiness 
for  the  start,  Hamilton  assembled  his  force  of  regulars, 
volunteers,  and  Indians,  on  the  common  at  Detroit,  not 
far  from  the  Campus  Martins,  which  was  the  centre  of 
Detroit's  stirring  military  life  during  the  war  of  the 
Itebellion.  From  the  mission  across  the  river  came 
Pere  Potier,  and  the  articles  of  wiw  having  been  read 
and  the  oath  of  allegiance  having  been  renewed,  the 
venerable  priest  gave  his  blessing  to  the  Catholics  pres- 
ent, conditioned  on  their  strict  adherence  to  their  oath. 
''  The  subsequent  behavior  of  these  people,"  significant- 
ly says  Hamilton,  "has  occasioned  my  recalling  this 
circumstance." 

The  dreamv  haze  of  Indian  summer,  blendinnr  low- 
reaching  sky  with  autumn-tinted  shore  and  opalescent 
water;  the  click  of  the  oars  in  the  thole-pins,  borne  far  on 
the  still  air;  the  triangular  flocks  of  ducks  flying  from 
one  bed  of  wild -rice  to  another,  preparatory  to  their 
winter  migration ;  the  steady  current  of  the  island- 
strewn  river,  ready  to  speed  the  journey,  all  combined 
to  make  a  propitious  beginning.  Before  the  flotilla  had 
covered  the  eighteen  miles  of  river,  how^ever,  the  wind, 
suddenly  shifting  to  the  north,  brought  dow^n  upon 
them  a  flurry  of  snow  and  fringed  the  reedy  shores  with 
thin  ice.  Rain  and  darkness  were  their  portion  as  they 
made  the  traverse  of  Lake  Erie  to  the  Miami  (now  the 
Maumee),  and  landed  on  an  oozy  beach,  where  they  spent 

'  See  Lord  George  Germain's  letter  of  iustruetions,  Murch  26,  1777, 
in  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Ilistorical  Collections,  vol.  ix.,  p.  347.  Copies 
of  Hamilton's  proclamation  and  the  letter  from  the  Detroit  loyalists 
accompany  Captain  White  Eyes'  letter  to  Colonel  Morgan,  of  March 
14,  mS.— State  Deitartnwit  MS8. 

229 


Till':    N  OUT  II  WEST    UNDEU   TilUEE    FLAGS 

the  night  without  tent  or  fire.  AV^ith  no  more  than  tlK 
ordinary  difficulty,  the  force  of  one  hundred  and  four 
teen  whites  and  aboutsixty  Intlians  pursued  their  journey 
to  the  headwaters  of  the  Wabash,  down  which  stream 
tliey  floated  amid  the  running  ice.  Seventy-one  days 
out  from  Detroit,  as  tliey  were  a])|)roaching  Vincennes, 
Hamilton  sent  Major  Hay  in  advance,  and  to  him,  on 
December  17th,  Captain  Helm  surrendered  his  wretched! 
fort,  with  its  two  iron  three-pounders  and  a  very  limited 
stock  of  ammunition,  its  lockless  gate,  and  its  miserable 
barracks  without  even  a  well  of  w^ater.  The  second 
surrender  was  like  unto  the  first — not  war,  but  a  game 
of  chess/ 

Having  won  so  easy  a  victory,  Hamilton  now  con- 
sidered whether  he  should  not  go  on  to  complete  his 
work  by  the  conquest  of  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia;  but 
the  more  he  thought  over  the  matter,  the  more  con- 
vinced his  moderate-sized  mind  became  that  his  present 
situation  was  best.  Animated  by  the  spirit  of  a  post- 
commander,  he  repaired  the  fort,  called  the  fickle  French 
to  repentance,  and  sent  off  war- parties  to  waylay  and 
murder  the  Virginians  on  the  Ohio.  Hamilton's  force 
had  been  increased  by  accessions  of  Indians  to  five 
hundred  persons,  and  he  had  not  then  the  supplies  req- 
uisite for  a  more  extended  campaign.  Indeed,  he  was 
forced  to  send  awav  some  of  his  Indians  to  hunt.  Again, 
the  spring  freshets  w^ere  at  hand,  and  by  them  Vin 
cennes  would  be  cut  off  from  the  Illinois  posts  by  miles 
of  overflowed  lands;  and  this  should  also  prove  a  defence. 
Under  ordinary  circumstances,  events  would  have  justi- 
fied this  reasoning ;  but  unfortunately  for  him  Hamilton 

'  Hamilton's  account  of  his  expedition  from  the  time  of  leaving 
Detroit  to  his  arrival  in  England  is  given  in  the  Michigan  Pioneer  and 
Historical  Collections,  vol.  ix.,  p.  489  et  seq. 

330 


THE  QUEBEC  ACT  AND  TUE  UEVOLUTIUN 

had  now  to  deal  with  two  men  of  most  uncommon  spirit 
and  resohition. 

Of  CUirk's  character  we  have  ah'eady  had  a  foretaste. 
Of  Francis  Vigo  we  have  now  to  learn.  Horn  a  Sar- 
dinian, he  early  enlisted  as  a  private  in  a  Spanish  regi- 
ment, and  was  sent  to  New  Orleans.  Procuring  an 
honorable  discharge,  he  engaged  in  the  fur- trade  on  the 
Arkansas,  and  after  St.  I.ouis  was  founded  he  removed 
to  that  post  and  became  a  prosperous  trader  on  the 
Missouri.  AVith  a  love  of  liberty  that  Spanish  service 
could  not  efface,  he  went  to  Clark  at  Kaskaskia  and 
made  offer  of  his  means  and  his  influence  to  advance 
the  cause  of  liberty.  Clark  gladly  accepted,  and  quick- 
ly made  use  of  Vigo's  services,  by  sending  him  to  Vin- 
cennes  with  supi)lies  for  Captain  Helm.  Accompanied 
by  a  single  servant  Vigo  set  out  with  a  pack  of  goods, 
but  on  reachinoc  the  river  Embarrass  he  was  seized  bv  Ind- 
ians,  his  goods  were  stolen,  and,  a  prisoner,  he  was  taken 
before  Hamilton.'  As  a  Spanish  non-combatant  Vigo 
was  not  subject  to  capture;  and  Hamilton,  having  some 
suspicions  of  his  errand,  was  glad  to  part  with  him  after 
exacting  a  promise  that  he  would  do  nothing  injurious 

^  During  his  years  of  affluence  Vigo  never  claimed  payment  for  his 
losses  and  never  sought  to  collect  a  druft  drawn  by  Clark  on  Oliver 
Pollock,  agent  for  Virginia;  but  about  1802  Vigo  was  taken  ill,  and 
his  affairs  went  badly.  He  then  sought  from  the  United  States  pay- 
ment for  the  last  draft,  amounting  to  about  ^8000.  Much  interesting 
history  in  regard  to  Vigo  and  the  Illinois  campaign  is  to  be  found  in 
House  of  R<'presentatives  Report,  No.  122,  Twenty-third  Congress, 
second  session,  and  No.  513,  Twenty -sixth  Congress,  first  session. 
The  former  of  these  reports  contains  most  complimentary  letters  on 
Vigo  and  his  services,  by  George  Rogers  Clark,  William  Henry 
Harrison,  Judge  J.  Burnett,  General  Anthony  Wayne,  and  Secretary 
of  War  Knox.  Vigo  was  a  trader  during  Wayne's  campaign  of  1795, 
and  performed  services  for  that  general  akin  to  those  performed  for 
Clark. 

231 


THE    xNOUTllWEST    UNI>KIl    TIIUKH    FLAG> 

to  British  interests  on  his  wav  to  St.  Louis.  This 
promise  Vigo  kept  to  the  letter.  Departing  clown  th( 
Wabash,  tbe  same  pirogue  that  took  him  to  St.  Loui; 
returned  with  him  to  Kasktiskia,  where  he  laid  before 
Clark  the  information  that  led  to  his  great  campaign.' 

Colonel  Vigo's  report  having  confirmed  Clark  in  hisl 
belief  that  either  he  must  capture  Hamilton  or  else 
Hamilton  would  take  him,  he  decided  upon  one  ol 
those  desperate  chances  that  in  war  almost  invariably 
succeed.  First  equipping  a  tlatboat  with  su})plies,  he 
sent  it  around  to  the  Wabash,  with  forty-six  men  under 
the  command  of  his  cousin.  Lieutenant  John  Rogers. 
Then  he  gathered  a  force  of  French  militia  to  eke  out 
his  own  scanty  numbers;  and  with  a  miniature  army  of 
four  or  live  conn)anies,  embracing  altogether  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  men,  he  set  out,  on  the  5th  of  Febru- 
ary, to  capture  a  British  commander  ensconced,  as  the 
Virginia  commander  had  every  reason  to  suppose,  in  a 
rebuilt  fort  armed  with  cannon  and  well  supplied  for  a 
siege,  and  with  a  garrison  equiJ  to  half  the  number  of 
the  besiegers.     Striking  north  to  reach  the  well-defined 

'  Law's  Colonial  Ilhtory  of  T7;iC6n>i^«(Vincennes,  1858),  p.  28.  Law 
says  that  it  was  through  the  influence  of  Father  Gihault  that  Vigo 
was  released.  At  Gibault's  instance  llie  people  refused  to  supply  the 
garrison  with  food  unless  Vigo  was  set  free.  Probably  this  was  one 
of  the  various  causes  that  led  Hamilton  to  compliment  Gibault  by 
calling  him  "  an  active  agent  of  the  rebels,  and  whose  vicious  and  im- 
moral conduct  was  sufficient  to  do  infinite  mischief  in  a  country 
where  ignor.^nce  and  bigotry  give  full  scope  to  the  depravity  of  a 
licentious  ecclesiastic.  This  wretch  it  was  who  absolved  the  French 
inhabitants  from  their  allegiance  to  the  King  of  Great  Britain.  To 
enumerate  the  vices  of  the  inhabitants  would  be  to  give  a  long  cata- 
logue, but  to  assert  that  they  are  not  in  possession  of  a  single  virtue, 
is  not  more  than  truth  and  justice  require  ;  still  the  most  eminently 
vicious  and  scandalous  was  the  Reverend  Mousr.  Gibault." — Hamil- 
ton's Report. 

232 


"hi' 


TilK    (H'KBKC    ACT   AND   TllK    UEVOLUTION 

St.  Louis  trail,  by  day  Clark\s  men  made  slow  marches, 
with  the  rain  pt'Iting  their  faces  antl  soakiiig  their 
clothes,  and  the  mud  often  knee-deep.  At  nifj^iit  Clark 
cheered  their  dro(»ping  spirits  by  feasts  of  butFalo-mcat 
and  other  *5^ame  shot  during  the  day,  and  by  songs  and 
war-dances  after  the  Indian  fashion.  Twelve  days  out 
they  came  to  the  Embarrass  River  only  to  find  the  coun- 
try all  under  water,  save  only  a  small  hillock  where  they 
passed  the  night  without  food  or  lire. 

Next  day  they  lieard  with  joy  Hamilton's  morning 
gun.  Men  were  sent  off  to  find  boats;  but  after  spend- 
ing a  day  and  a  night  in  the  water  they  returned  to 
report  not  a  foot  of  dry  land  to  be  discovered.  For 
two  davs  they  were  without  food  of  anv  kind,  but  on 
the  third  dav  a  deer  was  killed;  two  more  davs  fol- 
lowed  without  so  much  as  a  bite  of  provision;  the  sea 
of  waters  seemed  unending;  and  nothing  but  the  un- 
failing good -nature  and  tact  of  the  leader  kept  the 
French  from  turning  back  and  the  Virginians  from 
being  discouraged.  The  morning  and  evening  guns  at 
Fort  Sackville  came  over  the  waters  with  their  tantaliz- 
ing boom;  and  still  the  rains  descended  and  the  floods 
increased.  On  the  21st  of  February  things  had  come 
to  the  most  serious  pass.  The  water  ahead  was  neck- 
high,  and  Clark's  looks  showed  how  serious  was  the 
situation.  Realizing  from  the  wave  of  dejection  that 
passed  over  his  men  when  they  saw  his  troubled  face, 
that  all  depended  absolutely  on  his  own  courage  and 
fortitude,  he  immediately  took  a  handful  of  powder 
and,  wetting  it,  smeared  his  face  after  the  manner  of 
the  savages.  It  was  the  signal  for  the  onslaught,  and 
when  he  plunged  into  the  flood  the  others  followed  as 
if  rushing  on  the  foe.  Then  he  struck  up  a  backwoods 
ditty,  and  that  too  was  taken  up ;  and  before  the  song 

233 


( * 


TIIK     NOirniWKST    rXDKU    TIIUKK    FLAG 

was  suffered  to  die  out  all  had  reached  Sugar  Camp  an| 
a  half  acre  of  dry  land.     Next  morning  at  sunrise?  the 
again  dashed  into  the  waters;  but  this  time  instead  of 
song  there  was  a  stern  command  to  Major  Bowman  t 
shoot  the  lii'st  who  turned  back.     The  water  was  wais 
high;  and  wiien  Clark  found  himself  sensibly  failing  h 
began  to  fear  for  the  weak  ones.     80  he  oi'dered  tlul 
canoes  to  |>ly  back  and  forth,  supporting  the  men,  til 
all  had  come  safely  to  land.     Smiling  fortune  now  cam 
in  the  guise  of  a  canoeful  of  squaws  with  a  quarter 
buffalo,  corn,  tallow,  and  kettles.     While  the  strongci 
ones  walked  their  weaker  brothers  up  and  down  tlu 
shore  in  order  to  restore  circulation,  broth  was  made 
and   the  hungry  were  nourished.     Then,  too,  the  sun. 
long  hidden,  came  out  to  dry  the  soaked  clothing,  and 
put  heart  into  the  men.     Its  beams  lit  up  the  wide  and 
level  plain,  and  in  ])lain  sight  stood  Fort  Sackville,  the 
goal  of  their  march  indeed,  but  still  to  be  conquered. 

At  this  juncture  Clark  was  so  fortunate  as  to  capture 
some  duck-hunters,  from  whom  he  learned  that  IJamil- 
ton  had  no  thought  of  attack,  and  that  the  French  and 
Indians  in  the  town  were  well  disposed  towards  the 
Virginians.  With  a  tine  knowledge  of  F>ench  charac- 
ter, Clark  sent  to  the  people  of  Vincennes  a  message 
saying  that  he  proposed  to  take  the  tow^n  that  night, 
warning  the  friendly  ones  to  keep  in  their  houses,  and 
advising  the  adherents  of  the  British  to  seek  the  fort 
and,  joining  the  hair -buyer  general,  to  tight  like  men. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  people  stayed  at  home. 
Not  an  intimation  of  Clark's  coming  was  given  to 
Hamilton,  and  the  first  patter  of  bullets  against  the 
])alisades  vvas  thought  to  be  the  usual  friendly  salute 
from  a  party  of  savages  returning  from  the  hunt. 
Having  stolen  up  to   good   positions   behind    houses, 

234 


TIIK   QUEHEC    ACT   AND   TIIK    KKVOLrTlUX 

ditches,  and  the  banks  of  the  river,  Clark's  men,  tiretl 
and  hun<,n'y  as  they  were,  kept  up  an  intermittent  lire 
throii«,^hout  the  night  of  the  23d,  wounding  six  of  tho 
garrison.  Meantime  the  besieged  sent  cannon  -  l)alls 
over  the  heads  of  the  Virginians,  doing  no  danuige  to 
life  and  not  much  to  pro[)erty.  When  daylight  came, 
the  frontier  riflemen  picked  ofT  the  gunners  as  they 
served  the  cannon  ;  and  about  nine  in  the  morning 
Chirk  sent  a  pei'emptory  demand  for  the  surrender  of 
the  fort.  '*  If  I  am  obliged  to  storm,"  says  Clark,  '\vou 
may  depend  on  such  treatment  as  is  justly  due  a  mur- 
derer." Tiiose  are  strong  words,  but  they  express(Ml 
mildly  the  feelings  of  the  Virginians  towards  those  who 
had  emj)loyed  Indians  to  murder  settlers.  Virginians, 
moved  by  revenge,  at  times  might  commit  atrocious 
massacres  of  savages,  but  they  did  not  employ  Indians 
against  the  British;  and  Clark  even  refused  the  request 
of  The  Tobacco's  Son  and  his  warriors  to  take  part  in 
the  assault  of  Fort  Sackville. 

Hamilton,  finding  his  men  determined  "to  stick  by 
him  as  the  shirt  to  his  back,"  replied  that  he  and  his 
garrison  were  "  not  disposed  to  be  awed  into  any  action 
unworthy  of  British  subjects";  but  in  the  afternoon  the 
two  commanders  arranged  a  meeting  at  the  little  log 
church  near  the  fort,  the  scene  of  Gibault's  absolution  of 
the  people  from  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  also  the  place 
wheie  the  same  people  had  kissed  the  crucifix  in  token 
of  abject  submission  to  the  King  of  England.  Hamilton 
was  willing  to  retire  with  his  garrison  to  Pensac  .la  ; 
Clark  insisted  on  unconditional  surrender,  savino:  that 
his  men  were  eager  to  avenge  the  murder  of  their  rela- 
[tives  and  friends,  and  that  nothing  less  than  immediate 
[surrender  would  satisfy  them.  As  for  himself,  Clark  said 
that  he  knew  that  the  greater  part  of  the  Indian  parti- 

2aj 


THE    NOJiTUWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

sans  from  Detroit  were  in  he  fort,  and  he  wanted  an 
excuse  either  to  put  them  to  death  or  otherwise  treat 
them  as  he  saw  fit.  The  choice,  therefore,  was  between 
massacre  and  surrender  at  discretion.  Even  while  the 
parle}^  was  in  progress,  Clark's  men  had  taken  some  fif- 
teen or  sixteen  Indians  within  sight  of  the  fort,  and 
there  had  made  them  sing  their  death  -  song  and  had 
tomahawked  them  one  by  one,  by  way  of  warning.  On 
consultation  with  his  officers,  Clark  was  led  to  modify 
his  demands ;  and  late  in  the  evening  articles  of  capitu- 
lation were  signed. 

At  ten  o'clock  on  tlie  morning  of  February  25th,  the 
garrison  marched  out  with  fixed  bayonets.  The  colors 
not  having  been  hoisted  that  morning,  Hamilton  was 
spared  the  humiliation  of  hauling  thein  down,  a  fact 
soothing  to  his  much- wounded  pride.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  Hamilton  made  the  best  of  a  bad  situation.  The 
French  at  Yincennes  were  favorable  to  the  Americans 
because  France  was  in  alliance  with  the  Colonies ;  and 
there  av,  5  some  prospect  that  the  French  rule  might  be 
re-established ;  and  because  in  his  slender  garrison  the 
only  persons  on  whom  he  could  rely  were  the  few  regu- 
lars whom  he  had  brought  with  him.  The  Indians, 
fickle  by  nature,  were  on  the  side  of  the  winners. 

Having  taken  possession  of  the  fort,  Clark  ordered 
a  salute  of  thiiooen  guns  in  honor  of  the  Colo- 
nies. To  add  to  the  hilarity.  Captain  Helm  brought 
in  Mr.  Justice  Dejean,  with  a  party  from  Detroit, 
and  an  abundance  of  stores  and  clothing.  Now  pov- 
erty was  turned  to  affluence,  and  in  the  joy  of  success 
the  pains  and  hunger  of  the  long  march  were  forgot- 
ten. On  March  8th,  the  prisoners,  twenty -seven  in 
number,  be^^an  thei**  ournev  to  Williamsburo:,  a  dis- 
tance  of  twelve  hunaitd  miles.     It  was  not  a  comfort- 

236 


THE   QUEBEC    ACT    AND   THE    JiEVOLUTlOjN 

able  trip  even  to  a  backwoodsman ;  but  to  the  humili- 
ated Hamilton,  used  to  all  the  comforts  of  life,  the 
crowded  boat,  the  lack  of  shelter  from  the  rain,  the  lon(^ 
day  at  the  oars,  the  scanty  allowance  of  bear's  llesh  and 
Indian-meal,  and  the  long  march  to  the  James  River, 
all  gave  him  nearly  three  months  of  keenest  misery. 
On  June  15th,  he  was  met  at  Chesterfield  with  an  order 
from  Governor  Thomas  Jefferson,  by  virtue  of  which  he 
was  taken  in  irons  to  Williamsburg.  Weary,  hungry, 
thirsty,  in  \vet  clothes,  the  British  lieutenant-governor 
at  Detroit  stood  at  the  door  of  the  executive  palace 
while  the  mob  gathered  to  escort  him  to  jail.  There  he 
found  Justice  Demean  also  in  fetters,  and  the  two  were 
thrust  into  a  narrow  cell  already  occupied  by  five 
drunken  criminals.  On  the  last  day  of  August  Major 
Hay  and  the  other  prisoners  arrived,  and  the  officers 
were  made  to  share  Hamilton's  ''dungeon."  For  nine- 
teen months  Hamilton  endured  his  confinement;  on 
October  10^  1780,  he  was  suffered  to  go  to  New  York 
on  parole,  and  in  the  following  March  he  returned  to 
England.' 

Gratified,  but  not  elated,  by  his  success  at  Yincennes, 
Clark  now  sat  down  to  count  the  cost  of  continuing  his 

'  There  is  no  question  that  the  treatment  accorded  to  Hamilton  by 
the  Virginia  authorities  wns  severe  beyond  the  rules  of  warfare,  and 
when  the  matter  was  reported  to  Washington  he  succeeded  in  bringing 
about  a  modification  of  it.  Had  Hamilton  been  willing  to  give  the 
usual  parole  he  would  have  fared  better.  At  the  same  time,  it  should 
be  remembered  that  Virginia  held  a  court  of  inquiry,  in  which  it  was 
shown,  at  least  to  the  satisfaction  of  those  who  were  called  on  to  decide 
the  question,  that  Hamilton  had  been  guilty  of  buying  scalps  of  Vir- 
ginians from  the  Indians — a  crime  that  stirred  every  drop  of  resentful 
blood  in  the  veins  of  the  countrymen  of  the  victims.  Hamilton's 
kindness  to  Boone,  and  his  repeateil  warnings  to  the  Indians  to  bring 
prisoners  instead  of  scalps,  w^ere  overloolied,  and  not  unnaturally. 

237 


THE    NOKTJIWEST    UNDER    TIIIiEE    FLAGS 

expedition  to  Detroit,  where,  as  lie  learned,  there  were 
but  eighty  men  in  the  garrison,  and  the  people  were  well 
disposed  towards  the  Americans.  At  this  juncture  the 
ttat-bofit  Williny  appeared,  coming  up  the  Wabash  with 
the  reinforcements  and  sup|)lies  from  Kaskaskia.  On 
board  was  Morris,  a  messenger  from  Governor  Thomas 
Jefferson,  who  sent  assurances  that  more  troops  would 
be  forthcoming  from  Virginia.  This  decided  Clark  to 
ap])oint  a  rendezvous  at  Vincennes  in  July,  preparatory 
to  a  dash  for  the  capital  of  the  Northwest.  In  antici- 
pation of  this  new  venture  he  first  terrorized  the  Detroit 
militia,  then  he  gave  them  boats,  arms,  and  provisions. 
He  told  them  that  he  was  anxious  to  restore  them  to 
the  families  from  whom  thev  had  been  torn,  and  after- 
wards  he  sent  them  home  to  spread  the  news  of  the 
kindly  disposition  of  the  Virginians.  Next  he  gave  the 
Indians  to  understand  that  he  was  not  very  particular 
whether  they  sided  with  him  or  not.  If  they  were  dis- 
posed to  keep  the  peace,  they  would  fare  the  better  for 
so  doing;  if  they  did  not  behave  themselves  they  would 
suffer  for  their  misconduct.  This  method  of  procedure 
had  the  best  possible  effect ;  for  while  it  did  not  keep 
the  Indians  from  mischief — notliing  could  do  tiiat — it 
caused  Clark  to  be  feared  from  New  Orleans  to  Lake 
Superior. 

Makino^  Lieutenant  Brashear  commandant  of  the 
fort,  renamed  Fort  Patrick  Henry,  and  placing  Cap- 
tain Helm  in  charge  of  civil  affairs,  Clark  embarked  on 
the  Willing  and  dropped  down  the  "Wabash,  bound  for 
Kaskaskia.  On  his  arrival  he  found  that  Captain  Eob- 
ert  George  and  his  company  of  twoscore  men  had  come 
from  New  Orleans,  and  in  Mav  Colonel  Todd  came  to 
establish  courts  at  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia,  and  Vincennes. 
In  July  Clark  returned  to  Vincennes  to  find  but  a  hand- 

238 


^ 


THE   QUEliKC   ACT    AND   THE    UEVOi.UTlON 

fill  of  Kentucky  troops,  and  nono  from  Virginia.  Then 
he  knew  that,  for  the  present,  at  least,  all  thoughts  of 
capturing  Detroit  must  be  given  up,  and  afterwards 
the  propitious  time  never  came. 

The  conquest  of  the  Illinois  country,  l>rilliant  as  the 
exploit  was  in  itself,  was  to  be  made  of  permanent  value 
bv  the  statesmen  who  afterwards  used  it  as  the  basis  of 

ft/ 

claims  and  negotiations  in  the  making  of  treaties.  Gov- 
ernor Thomas  Jefferson,  thoroughly  appreciating  the  ad- 
vantages of  Clark^s  work,  now  turned  his  attention  to 
making  it  effective  not  onl}^  against  England,  our  en- 
emy, but  also  against  France  and  Spain,  our  momentary 
friends.  In  pursuance  of  this  policy,  he  sent  Clark  to 
select  a  location  for  a  fort  on  the  Mississippi  below  tlje 
mouth  of  the  Ohio,  the  object  being  to  establish  the 
American  claim  to  the  navigation  of  the  great  river. 
In  order  to  make  sure  of  his  ground,  Jefferson  sent  the 
surveyors  Walker  and  Smith  to  take  observations  of  the 
latitudes ;  and  he  gave  instructions  to  Major  Martin,  Vir- 
ginia 5  Cherokee  agent,  to  purchase  from  that  tribe  the 
'•  little  tract  of  country  between  the  Mississippi,  Ohio, 
Tanissee,  and  Carolina  line,''  in  which  the  fort  was  to 
be  located.  Clark  was  to  build  the  fort  "  as  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio  as  can  be  found  fit  for  fortification 
and  within  our  own  lines,"*  and  Jefferson  char^red  him 
to  have  a  care  as  to  the  wood  of  which  he  made  stock- 
ades, ''that  it  be  of  the  most  lasting  kind."  Such  was 
tlie  origin  of  Fort  Jefferson ;  and  the  foresight  of  Yir- 
ginia's  governor  at  this  time  gives  him  strong  claims  to 
the  title  of  the  original  expansionist.' 
Jefferson's   instructions   to  Clark   show  vividly  the 


^  For  the  diplomatic  importance  of  this  step,  see  Kitchen's  History 
oftJiC  United  States,  vol.  ii.,  p.  512  et  seq. 

239 


I' UK    NORTH  \\i:  ST    INDEU    T  11  K  E  K    FLAGS 

financiiil  distress  of  Virginia  at  a  time  when  these  plans 
for  western  expansion  were  being  carried  out,  and  give 
tiie  reason  why  more  extensive  campaigns  could  not  be 
undertaken.'  Instead  of  bounty  money,  Jetferson  sent 
three  hundred  land-warrants  of  560  acres  each,  '*  which 
at  forty  pounds  the  hundred,  being  the  Treasury  price, 
amounts  to  the  bounty  allowed  by  huv";  also  he  sent 
twenty-four  blank  commissions  for  the  eight  companies 
of  the  battalion  Clark  was  authorized  to  raise.  The 
drafts  for  the  Illinois  expedition  were  coming  in,  and,  as 
the  paper  currency  was  badly  depreciated,  Jefferson  w^as 
perplexed  as  to  the  amount  that  ought  to  be  paid  on 
them.  ''The  difficulty  of  answering  demands  of  hard 
money,"  w^'ites  Jefferson,  ''makes  it  necessary  for  us  to 
contract  no  debts  where  our  paper  is  not  current.  It 
throws  on  us  the  tedious  and  perplexing  question  of  in- 
vesting paper  money  in  tobacco,  finding  transportation 
for  the  tobacco  to  France — repeating  this  as  often  as  the 
dangers  of  capture  render  necessary  to  insure  the  safe 
arrival  of  some  part — and  negotiating  bills,  besides  the 
expensive  train  of  agents  to  do  all  this,  and  the  delay 
it  occasions  to  the  creditor.  We  must,  therefore,  recom- 
mend you  to  purchase  nothing  beyond  the  Ohio  which 
you  can  do  without,  or  which  may  be  obtained  from  the 
east  side,  where  our  paper  is  current.''  Clark  is  warned 
that  supplies  of  clothing  will  be  precarious,  and  that  as 
far  as  possible  he  should  rely  on  skins.  "  In  short," 
says  the  governor,  '*I  must  confide  in  you  to  take  such 
care  of  the  men  under  vou  as  an  economical  house- 
holder  would  of  his  ow^  n  family,  doino-  evervthino^  wutli- 
in  himself  as  far  as  he  can,  and  calling  for  as  few"  sup- 


^  Jefferson  to  Clark,  January  29, 1780,  Peter  Force  MMS.  in  Library 
of  Congress. 

240 


THOMAS  JKFFKUSOX 


TUK  QUEliEC    ACT   AND  TllL:   KEVOLUTlON 

plies  as  possible."  Jefferson  further  advised  the  with- 
drawal of  a  portion  of  the  troops  from  west  of  the 
Oiiio,  leaving  only  so  many  as  might  be  necessary  for 
keeping  the  Illinois  settlements  in  spirits  and  for  their 
real  protection  ;  he  questioned  the  ex})ediency  of  build- 
ing a  fort  at  Kaskaskia;  he  a])proveil  the  mild  meas- 
ures taken  towards  the  French  ;  because  ''  we  wish 
them  to  consider  us  as  brothers  and  {)articipate  with  us 
in  the  benefit  of  our  laws." 

Jefferson  instructed  Clark  to  cultivate  peace  and  cord- 
ial friendship  with  all  Indians  but  the  Shawanese.  ''  En- 
deavor that  those  who  are  in  friendship  with  us  live 
in  peace  also  with  one  another.  Against  those  who  are 
our  enemies  let  loose  the  friendly  tribes.  The  Kika- 
pous  should  be  encouraged  against  the  hostile  tribes  of 
Chickasaws  and  Choctaws,  and  the  others  against  the 
Shawanese.  With  the  latter  be  cautious  of  the  terms  of 
peace  you  admit.  An  evacuation  of  their  country  and 
removal  utterly  out  of  interference  with  us  would  be 
the  most  satisfactory." 

"As  to  the  English,"  says  Jefferson,  in  a  spirit  of 
magnanimity  that  shines  out  brightly  amid  the  exaspera- 
tions of  barbarous  warfare,  "notwithstanding  their  base 
example,  we  wish  not  to  expose  them  to  the  inhumanity 
of  a  savage  enemy.  Let  this  reproach  remain  on  them. 
But  for  ourselves,  we  would  not  have  our  national  char- 
acter tarnished  with  such  a  practice.  If,  indeed,  they 
strike  the  Indians,  these  will  have  a  natural  right  to 
punish  the  aggressors,  and  with  none  to  hinder  them.  It 
will  then  be  no  act  of  ours.  But  to  invite  them  to  a 
participation  of  the  war  is  what  we  would  avoid  by  all 
possible  means.  If  the  English  would  admit  them  to 
trade,  and  by  that  means  get  those  wants  supplied  which 
we  cannot  supply,  I  should  think  it  right,  provided  they 
Q  ^  241 


THE    NOUTIIWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGIS 

require  from  them  no  terms  of  departing  from  their  neii- 
trahty.  If  they  will  not  permit  this,  I  think  the  Ind- 
ians might  be  urged  to  break  off  all  correspondence  with 
them,  to  forbid  their  emissaries  from  coming  among 
them,  and  to  send  them  to  you  if  they  disregard  the 
prohibition.  It  would  be  well  to  communicate  honestly 
to  them  our  present  want  of  those  articles  necessary  for 
them,  and  our  inability  to  get  them;  to  encourage  them 
to  struggle  with  the  difficulties  as  we  do  till  peace,  when 
they  may  be  conftdently  assured  we  will  spare  nothing 
to  put  their  trade  on  a  comfortable  and  just  footing.  In 
the  mean  time  we  must  endeavor  to  furnish  them  with 
ammunition  to  provide  skins  to  clothe  themselves.  "With 
a  disposition  to  do  them  every  friendly  office  and  to  gain 
their  love  we  would  yet  wish  to  avoid  their  visits.'' 

That  Jefferson  was  thoroughly  alive  to  the  impor- 
tance of  a  Detroit  expedition  as  a  means  of  punishing 
the  Indians  is  made  plain  by  his  letters  to  Washing- 
ton. In  the  spring  of  1780,  when  the  commander-in- 
chief  was  contemplating  an  expedition  from  Fort  Pitt, 
to  be  commanded  by  Colonel  Brodhead,  Jefferson  wrote 
to  suggest  that  Clark  also  was  planning  such  an  attack, 
that  two  expeditions  were  unnecessary,  and  that  a  joint 
expedition  was  impossible,  because  the  two  officers  could 
not  act  together.  Again,  in  September,  Jefferson' 
called  "Washington's  attention  to  the  fact  that  Yir- 
gmia  at  great  expense  was  maintaining  from  five  to 
eight  hundred  men  for  the  defence  of  her  frontiers 
against  the  British -paid  Indians;  he  suggested  that 
the  reduction  of  Detroit  would  "cover  all  the  States 
to  the  southeast  of  it,"  and  said  that  nothing  but  the 
cost  (which  had  been  figured  at  two  million  pounds  of 

^  JellersoQ  to  Washington,  February  10  and  September  26, 1780. 

242 


THE  QUEBEC   ACT   AND  THE   UEVOLUTIOX 

the  current  money)  prevented  the  colony  from  under- 
tiiking  tlio  task.  As  it  was,  Virginia  stood  ready  to 
i'lirnisii  the  men,  provisions,  and  every  necessary  except 
powder,  provided  her  money  l)urilens  in  other  quarters 
couhl  be  lightened.  ''When  I  speak  of  furnishing  the 
men,"  writes  the  governor,  '"  I  mean  they  should  be  mi- 
litia, such  being  the  po|)ularity  of  Colonel  Clarke  and 
the  confidence  of  the  Western  people  in  him  that  he 
could  raise  the  requisite  number  at  any  time."  Jefferson 
suffirested  that  Washington  consider  whether  he  would 
not  be  justified  in  authorizing  the  expedition  at  the 
general  expense,  particularly  *'  as  the  ratification  of  the 
confederation  has  been  rested  on  our  cession  of  a  part 
of  our  western  claim,  a  cession  which  (speaking  my  pri- 
vate opinion)  I  verily  believe  will  be  agreed  to  if  the 
quantit}^  demanded  is  not  unreasonably  great.'' 

By  December  matters  had  reached  such  a  pass  that 
Jefferson  regarded  as  imperative  an  advance  on  Detroit. 
A  formidable  movement  of  British  and  Indians  was  or- 
ganizing for  the  purpose  of  spreading  destruction  and  dis- 
may through  the  whole  frontier;  and  in  order  to  prevent 
this  the  Western  enemy  must  be  employed  in  his  own 
country.  Virginia,  in  her  ow^n  defence,  was  prepared 
to  commit  this  work  to  Clark,  leaving  it  to  Congress  to 
decide  afterwards  as  to  whether  the  expense  should  be 
State  or  Continental.  At  this  time  the  only  thing  asked 
was  the  loan  of  artillery,  ammunition,  and  tools  from 
Fort  Pitt ;  and  this  favor  Jefferson  did  not  hesitate  to 
ask,  because  Virginia  had  furnished  to  that  fort  supplies 
which  had  been  loaned  freely  to  both  the  Northern  and 
the  Southern  army.' 

Clark  also  appealed  to  Washington,  and  the  com- 


^  Jefferson  to  Washington,  December  13,  1780. 

243 


Tin:    xNOUTlIWEST    UXI)KIt    TllUKK    FLAGS 

niandcr-in-cliief  was  gkul  (niouoli  to  onler  Colonel  Brod- 
liead  at  Fort  l*itt  to  supply  tin;  \irginia  leader  with  the 
necessary  stores.  None  could  appreciate  better  than 
Washington  himself  the  advanta«;es  of  ofTensive  meas- 
ures against  Detroit;  and  possibly  even  at  tiiis  time  he 
was  turning-  over  in  his  niinil  tiie  idea  he  afterwards 
expressed — that  if  the  Americans  should  be  defeated 
along  tlie  sea-coast,  he  would  gather  the  remnants  of 
the  armies,  and  beyond  the  Alloghanico  would  found  a 
new  State  on  the  fertile  banks  of  the  Ohio.  Unfortu- 
nately for  Clark's  plan  to  reduce  Detroit,  however,  ev- 
ery attem])t  to  collect  men  for  so  long  an  expedition 
failed  ;  and  during  the  remainder  of  the  war  the  country 
between  the  Ohio  and  the  Great  Lakes  was  one  vast 
neutral  ground,  over  which  now  prowled  a  band  of  sav- 
ages and  rangers  from  Detroit,  on  their  murderous  way 
to  the  Kentucky  forts ;  and  again  tlashed  pursuing  Ken- 
tucky backwoodsmen,  frantic  to  revenge  the  murders  of 
neighbors  and  relatives. 


CHAPTER    Vn 
THE   WAR  IN  THE  NORTHWEST 

Frederick  IIaldimand,  whose  fortune  it  was  to  gov- 
ern the  Northwest  during  the  latter  part  of  the  Revoki- 
tion,  had  attained  the  rank  of  lieutenant  -  colonel  in  the 
Swiss  Guards,  a  regiment  in  tlie  service  of  the  States- 
General  of  Ilolljind,  when  the  Seven  Years'  AVar  led  Eng- 
land to  or«:anize  the  Eoval  American  Ee^iment  for  ser- 

O  */  CD 

vice  in  this  country.  Through  the  urgency  of  the  British 
minister  at  the  Hague,  Major-General  Sir  Joseph  Yorke, 
IIaldimand  and  his  intimate  friend  Henry  Bouquet  had 
ticcepted  commissions  to  serve  under  John,  Earl  of 
Loudoun,  the  colonel  of  the  battalion,  the  understand- 
ing being  that  the  two  Swiss  officers  should  be  placed 
immediately  as  colonels  commanding,  in  order  to  re- 
move their  natural  objections  to  taking  service  under 
an  officer  inferior  to  them  in  rank  in  Europe.  In  1756 
IIaldimand  began  his  service  in  America  as  comman- 
dant at  Philadelphia;  next  he  went  to  Albany  as  colonel 
of  the  Royal  Americans,  whence  he  returned  to  Penn- 
sylvania to  command  the  troops  charged  with  the  pro- 
tection of  the  frontiers.  In  1758  he  w^as  in  the  terrible 
repulse  of  Abercrombie  by  Montcalm  at  Fort  Edward, 
and  he  served  in  the  Ticouderoga  campaign.  During 
the  next  year  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  rebuilding  Sir 
William  Johnson's  fort  at  Oswego,  and  repelling  the 
attack  of  that  noted  partisan  leader,  St.  Luc  la  Corne, 

245 


THE    NUUTilWKST    UNDKU    TllUEK    FLAGS 

and  his  IiidiariH.  Wlien  the  French  surrendered  Mon- 
treal, in  1700,  llaldimand  took  command,  and  two  years 
later  was  transferred  to  Three  Rivers,  once  noted  as  a 
fur  niiirket  and  then  prospectively  the  seat  of  the  manu- 
facture of  iron  at  the  St.  Maurice  forges. 

While  at  this  post,  Uuliliuuind  took  advantage  of  the 
law  allowing  otHcers  who  had  served  two  years  in  the 
Koval  Americans  to  becouie  British  citizens.  In  1767 
he  was  ])roni<)ted  to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general  and 
ordered  to  Pensacola  as  commander  of  his  Majesty's 
troops  in  all  the  southern  colonies,  the  position  that  was 
held  by  Bouquet  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  the  autumn 
of  1705.  Having  exercised  his  energy  to  put  that  post 
in  a  sanitary  condition,  llaldinumd  received  his  reward 
in  the  shape  of  a  transfer  to  New  York.'  There  the  tea 
troubles  found  him;  and  when  he  was  importuned  to 
call  out  the  troops  to  suppress  rioting,  he  wrote  to 
General  Amherst  that  he  should  '^  remain  a  quiet  specta- 
tor of  their  (the  peoples')  follies  until  the  civil,  having 
made  use  of  all  its  power,  demand  the  assistance  of  the 
military,  which  I  shall  grant  them  with  all  the  precau- 
tions required  by  the  constitution  ";  and  he  refused  ab- 
solutelv  to  use  the  militia  without  a  civil  mafjistrate  at 
their  head.  The  people  of  New  York,  being  in  no  mood 
to  make  fine  distinctions,  took  the  occasion  of  his  visit 
to  Gage  at  Boston  to  break  into  his  house,  demolish  the 
furniture,  and  loot  his  stables. 

But  for  England's  desire  to  have  the  chief  command 

*  Pensacola  consisted  of  a  stockade  fort,  a  few  straggling  houses, 
a  governor's  house,  and  miserable  bark  huts,  without  floors,  for  the 
officers  and  men.  Haldimaud  widened  the  streets  so  as  to  give  a  free 
circulation  of  air,  and  made  other  sanitary  improvements,  by  which 
he  reduced  sickness  and  banished  death  during  the  ensuing  summer, 
though  the  mercury  stood  at  114°. — Pittman's  Fi'esent  State  of  English 
Settlements  on  the  Mississippi. 

246 


THE    WAR    IN    THK    NORTHWEST 

in  America  devolve  upon  a  Briton  born,  Ihildiinand 
might  have  been  continued  in  New  York;  as  it  was,  he 
was  made  a  major-«»eneral  and  sent  to  insjMcL  tjje  West 
Iiuhan  forces,  from  which  position  he  was  called  to  suc- 
ceed Carleton  at  Quebec.  Reaching  his  new  post  on 
June  30,  1778,  llaldimand  immediately  set  himself  to 
administer  his  government  with  conscientious  tiiorough- 
ness.  With  Ethan  Allen  and  his  fellows  llaldimand 
carried  on  negotiations  for  a  reunion  of  Vermont  with 
the  crown  of  England  ;  and  he  was  active  in  seating  the 
loyalists,  or  Tories,  on  the  crown-lands  of  Canada.  Just 
and  considerate  towards  the  otllcers  under  him,  vet  in- 
flexible  in  doing  his  duty,  and  t)rudent  in  his  expendi- 
tures, he  never  failed  to  recognize  merit  or  to  call  oll'end- 
ers  to  account.  It  was  fortunate  for  the  United  States 
and  for  the  people  of  the  frontiers  that  the  commanding 
officer  at  Qecbec  contented  himself  with  administering 
his  government  in  an  unexceptionable  manner.  A  more 
ambitious  officer,  or  an  Englishman  of  vigor  and  initia- 
tive, might  have  driven  the  Americans  from  the  Wabash 
and  the  Illinois,  and  thus  forced  the  national  boundary 
back  to  the  Ohio.'  He  was  (juite  satisfied  to  let  the 
border  war  drag  on,  without  urging  his  subordinates  to 
more  activity  than  they  displayed,  his  greatest  concern 
being  that  the  expenses  of  feeding  and  clothing  the 
Indians  were  so  enormously  out  of  proportion  to  the 
results  attained.' 

'  Tlie  death  of  Sir  William  Johnson,  on  July  4, 1774,  and  of  Bouquet 
in  1765,  together  with  the  return  of  Amherst  in  1764,  and  the  supplant- 
ing of  Carleton  with  Burgoyne  for  the  New  York  campaign,  were  cir- 
curastances  favorable  to  the  Americans— how  favorable  has  been  the 
subject  of  much  speculation. 

'•*  See  Brymner's  Introduction  to  the  Canadian  Archives,  1887,  and 
Smith's  BouqueVs  Expedition  for  details  of  Haldimand's  life.  After 
a  perusal  of  the  Haldimand  correspondence  one  can  scarcely  fail  to 

247 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

Clark's  capture  of  Yincennes  and  the  Illinois  posts 
paralyze*!  th«>  English  efforts  to  carry  on  an  offensive 
campaign  on  the  frontier's  of  the  United  States,  and  con- 
fined their  efforts  to  pett}  warfare  in  the  shape  of 
Indian  raids  against  the  Ohio  Kiver  and  the  Kentucky 
settlements.  Haldimand  even  despaired  of  being  able 
to  prevent  the  Western  Indians  from  deserting  the 
Britisii  cause,  so  active  were  the  American  emissaries, 
and  such  was  the  effect  on  the  fickle  savages  of  the 
capture  of  Hamilton.  The  Six  Nations,  however,  were 
loyal,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  Americans  had 
destroved  manv  of  their  villaoces  and  had  forced  their 

ft/  «/  CD 

women  and  children  to  take  refuo^e  at  Niacj:ara.  But 
Haldimand  foresaw  that,  should  the  indifference  of  the 
Western  tribes  continue,  Detroit  must  share  the  fate  of 
Yincennes,  in  case  Clark  were  to  advance  v/ith  a  con- 
siderable force.  The  onlv  successes  Haldimand  could 
report  to  Lord  George  Germain  during  the  summer  of 
1779  were  the  savage  massacres  on  the  Susquehanna 
and  Mohawk  rivers,  where  the  settlements  had  been 
broken  up,  the  stock  destroyed,  and  the  inhabitants  driven 
back  into  the  interior.  To  offset  this  the  Americans 
had  destroved  the  fort  at  Osweo:o. 

Two  difficulties  beset  Haldimand — lack  of  troops  and 
lack  of  provisions.  To  his  eminently  practicr'  mind  it 
seemed  little  short  of  a  crime  that  the  fert'  lands  about 
the  posts  of  Detroit  and  Niagara  had  not  been  put 
under  cultivation  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  garrisons, 
thus  to  save  the  enormous  expense  of  transporting  pro- 
visions all  the  way  from  England  to  the  Upper  Lakes, 
an  expense  increased  by  the  way  American  privateers 

appreciate  the  integrity  and  the  justice  of  this  officer ;  and  a  reading 
of  his  diary,  written  after  his  return  to  England,  will  reveal  a  very 
engaging  personality. 

248 


THE    WAR    IX    TUE    NORTHWEST 

had  adopted  of  lying  in  wait  for  the  '•  victuaUers ''  ap- 
pearing at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  In  addition 
to  the  support  of  the  regular  garrisons,  the  British  had 
Indian  mouths  to  feed — the  Six  Nations  at  Niagara, 
and  at  Detroit  the  nations  as  far  south  as  the  Ohio,  in 
all  between  three  and  five  thousand  persons,  at  an  ex- 
pense of  nearly  S90,000.'  And  this  "  notwithstanding 
the  numbers  of  war-parties  continually  kept  abroad  to 
lessen  the  consumption/'  The  merchants  of  the  country- 
took  every  advantage  of  war-times  to  get  a  great  profit 
on  their  wares,  especially  on  rum,  paint,  and  other 
Indian  necessaries;  so  that  Haldimand  was  impelled  to 
take  measures  to  break  up  the  "  corners  "  and  '*  trusts  " 
that  these  enterprising  traders  devised.'' 

Eichard  Beringer  Lernoult,  a  captain  in  the  King's 
regiment  with  thirty-three  years  of  service  to  his  credit, 
was  left  in  charge  of  both  civil  and  military  affairs  at 
Detroit  when  Hamilton  started  on  his  ill-fated  expedi- 
tion to  the  Wabash.  The  captain  did  not  feel  himself 
capable,  either  physically  or  mentally,  of  bearing  the 
burdens  of  so  onerous  a  command ;  but  nevertheless  he 

*  "It  evidently  appears  that  the  Indians  in  general  wish  to  protract 
the  war,  and  are  most  happy  when  most  frequently  fitted  out;  it  is 
impossible  they  can  draw  resources  from  the  Rebels,  and  they  abso- 
lutely depend  upon  us  for  every  blanket  they  are  covered  with." — 
Haldimand  to  De  Pe^-ster,  August  10,  1780.  "I  observe  with  great 
concern  the  astonishing  consumption  of  Rum  at  Detroit,  amounting 
to  17,520  gallons  per  year." — Haldimand  to  Lernoult,  July  23,  1779. 

There  were  also  troubles  of  like  character  in  England.  A  Mr,  Stuart 
cleared  £70,000  by  contracting  for  a  supply  of  beads,  tomahawks, 
and  scalping  knives  for  the  Indians ;  and  a  Mr.  Atkinson  took  a  rum 
contract  at  exactly  double  the  price  which  it  cost  him.  These  facts 
were  notorious ;  but  Lord  North  stifled  the  iDvestigation.— Fitzmau- 
rice's  Life  of  Shelburne,  vol.  iii.,  p.  70. 

-  Haldimand's  letters  to  Lord  George  Germain,  1779-80,  in  Midiigan 
Pioneer  Collections,  vol.  x. 

249 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDEH    THREE    FLx\GS 

acquitted  himself  so  acceptably  that,  on  being  ordered 
to  Niaorara  after  two  years  of  service  at  Detroit,  he  was 
promoted  to  a  majority.  From  the  interpreter  Isadore 
Chene,  the  only  white  man  in  the  expedition  to  escape 
capture,  Lernoult  learned  of  Hamilton's  misfortune  a 
full  month  after  Vincennes  was  captured.  "  This  most 
unlucky  shake,"  as  the  captain  called  it,  ''  with  the  ap- 
proach of  so  large  a  party  of  Virginians  advancing  tow- 
ards St.  Duskie,  has  greatly  damped  the  spirits  of  the 
Indians.''  The  situation  at  Detroit  called  for  something- 
more  than  a  simple  tall  fence  of  pickets ;  for  it  w^as  ex- 
pected the  Americans  would  bring  cannon  with  them, 
and  in  that  case  the  town  would  be  at  their  mercy. 
Therefore  Captain  Lernoult  set  about  building  a  fort  on 
the  rise  of  ground  back  of  the  town,  the  site  being  that 
now  occupied  in  part  by  the  federal  building.  Captain 
Bird,  an  assistant  engineer  of  the  Eighth,  having  been 
intrusted  with  the  new  construction,  traced  a  square 
on  the  hill  and  added  half-bastions — not  a  satisfactory 
piece  of  work  from  an  engineer's  stand-point,  as  he  him- 
self admitted;'  but  the  best  that  could  be  done  in  the 
hurry  of  the  occasion.  From  the  November  of  1778  to 
the  following  February,  Bird  pressed  on  the  work ;  but 
when  the  ice  began  to  leave  the  river  his  military  soul 
longed  for  more  active  service.  Turning  over  to  Lieu- 
tenant Du  Vernett  the  task  of  completing  Fort  Lernoult, 
Captain  Bird  joined  himself  to  a  band  of  Indians  going 
on  the  war-path.  Possibly  his  martial  ardor  had  been 
stirred  by  Clark's  message  that  he  was  glad  to  hear  that 
the  British  were  making  new  works  at  Detroit,  "as  it 
saves  the  Americans  some  expenses  in  building." 

Having  collected  at  L^pper  Sandusky  a  force  of  about 

'  Bird  to  Brigadier  general  Powell,  August  13,  11:82.— JIaldmiand 
Papers. 

250 


THE    WAR    IN    THE    NORTHWEST 

two  hundred  savages,  chiefly  Shawanese,  Bird  was  anx- 
ious to  start ;  but,  just  at  the  hour  for  departure,  a  runner 
appeared,  bringing  new^s  that  the  Kentuckians'  had  at- 
tacked the  Shawanese  towns,  had  burned  houses,  carried 
otf  horses,  and  wounded  five  or  six  Indians.*'  In  an  in- 
stant all  was  confusion.  The  savages  were  in  a  panic. 
*•  There  was  mucii  counselling  and  no  resolves."  Bird 
was  forced  to  sacrifice  four  of  his  cattle  for  the  feasts ; 
the  "unsteady  rogues"  put  him  out  of  all  patience; 
they  were  **  always  cooking  or  counselling!"  And  thus 
the  expedition  came  to  an  end.  This  action  on  the  part 
of  the  Shawanese,  the  bravest  and  most  revengeful  of 
all  the  Western  Indians  was  characteristic.  Again  and 
again  they  importuned  the  commandant  at  Detroit  for 
help  against  the  Americans ;  but  although  they  were 
fed  and  clothed  at  British  expense,  a  rumor  running 
through  the  forest,  or  the  report  of  an  ambush  planned 
by  the  whites,  threw  them  into  such  consternation  that 
months  of  feastin^:  and  idleness  were  necessarv  to  work 
them  up  to  the  fighting  pitch. 

Captain  Bird,  however,  was  not  to  be  disappointed. 
During  the  spring  of  1778  a  small  force  of  regulars 
from  Fort  Pitt  had  built  Fort  Mcintosh  on  the  site 
now  occupied  by  the  quiet  old  town  of  Beaver;  and 
that  autumn  General  Lachlin  Mcintosh  had  advanced 
to  the  banks  of  the  Upper  Muskingum,  called  the  Tus- 
carawas, where  he  had  built,  near  the  present  site  of 
Bolivar,  Fort  Laurens,  named  for  the  President  of  Con- 
gress. During  the  winter  the  garrison  had  little  trouble ; 
but  one  day  in  the  spring  the  Indians  stole  the  fort 

'  Bird  to  Leriioult,  June  9,  Wi^.—llaldimand  Papers. 

'^  This  was  the  raid  of  Joliu  Bowman,  Logau,  Harrod,  and  others, 
against  Chillicothe.  In  the  end  uhe  Kcntiickiaus  were  defeated.  See 
Roosevelt's  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  ii.,  n.  97. 

251 


THE    XOHTUWEST    UNDER    TilUEE    FLAGS 

Iiorses,  took  off  their  bells,  and  jangled  them  along  u 
wood-path.  Of  the  sixteen  men  who  went  out  to  bring 
in  the  horses,  fourteen  were  killed  on  the  spot  and  the 
other  two  were  captured.  That  evening  the  anxious 
garrison  counted  eight  hundred  and  forty -seven  savages 
in  war-paint  and  feathers  marching  across  the  prairie 
exult ingly  celebrating  their  victory.'  Then  they  disap- 
peared; and  Colonel  Gibson,  thinking  the  occasion  op- 
portune for  sending  the  invalids  to  Fort  Pitt,  started  a 
dozen  sick  men  under  an  escort  of  fifteen  soldiers.  Of 
this  party  only  four  escaped  an  ambush  laid  within  two 
miles  of  the  fort.  A  few  days  later,  as  General  Mcin- 
tosh w\^s  coming  up  with  a  relief  of  seven  hundred  men, 
the  pack-horses  took  fright  at  the  welcoming  salute  from 
the  fort  and  carried  the  provisions  off  into  the  wood,  so 
that  the}^  were  not  recovered.  That  autumn  the  well- 
nigh  starved  garrison  retreated,  and  the  story  of  Fort 
Laurens  was  told."" 

Bird  was  present  at  some  of  the  attacks  on  Fort  Lau- 
rens,  and  in  May  he  led  a  party  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  whites  and  a  thousand  Indians  to  Kentucky,  where 
he  captured  two  small  stockades  on  the  Licking,  and 
then  retreated  rapidly  to  Detroit,  probably  because  the 
Indians  were,  as  usual,  satisfied  with  a  small  success  se- 
cured by  surprise,  and  had  no  inclination  to  give  battle 
to  an  enemy  on  the  alert.  Xor  did  they  escape  too 
soon ;  for  the  Kentuckians,  enraged  at  so  defiant  an  on- 

'  Simon  Girty  reported  the  number  of  Indians  as  between  seven 
hundred  and  eight  hundred  —  Six  Nations,  Delawares,  and  Shawa- 
nese.  Lernoult  wrote  to  Colonel  Bolton  at  Niagara  that  he  had  done 
everything  in  his  power  to  encourage  the  Indians,  having  sent  themi 
large  supplies  of  ammunition,  clothing,  and  presents  for  the  chief 
warriors. 

*  Doddridge's  Settlement  and  Indian  Wars  of  Virginia  and  Pennsyl- 
vania (Albany,  1867;,  p.  244  et  seq, 

252 


THE    WAR    IX    TlIK    NOIiTHWEST 

set,  making  Clark  their  li.sader,  luirriiM]  up  the  Ohio  and 
struck  across  to  Pickaway,  wliere  they  l)altered  the 
palisades  with  a  three -pounder  and  scattered  the  Ind- 
ians, driving  them  into  the  forests.'  Alter  this  thrust 
and  counter-thrust,  quiet  came  for  a  season. 

The  broad  waters  of  Lake  Huron  were  darkenint*'  un- 
der  the  sharp  October  winds  when,  in  ITTl^  the  bustling, 
garrulous,  impecunious  old  soldier,  Patt  Sinclair,  as  he 
signed  himself,  landed  on  tiie  sandy  stretches  of  Michil- 
imackinac  to  succeed  De  Peyster,  ordered  to  Detroit.' 
Sinclair  had  been  sent  to  xVinerica  by  Lord  Cieorge  Ger- 
main to  joi  1  Lord  Ilowe  at  Philadelphia.  Evidently  he 
was  not  wanted  in  Philadelphia ;  whereupon  he  was  sent 
to  the  hyperborean  regions  of  Mackinac  as  Lieutenant- 
Governor  and  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  his  com- 
mission being  the  same  as  the  one  Hamilton  had  carried 
to  Detroit.  By  purchase,  and  twenty-five  years  of  ser- 
vice, Sinclair  had  attained  a  rank  in  the  army  that  he 
was  not  disposed  to  relincjuish ;  and  he  insisted  that 
Lord  George  Germain  had  intended  him  to  enjoy  both 
the  military  and  the  civil  command,  and  especially  the 
emoluments  thereof.  He  even  threatened  to  return  to 
England  if  his  desires  on  this  point  should  not  be  sat- 
isfied ;  but  Haldimand,  knowing  the  man,  requested  him 
to  repair  to  his  post  w^lth  all  convenient  despatch. 

Before  reaching  his  new^  station,  Sinchiir  had  landed 
on  the  turtle-shaped  island  of  Michilimackinac,  the  fa- 

^  Theodore  Roosevelt,  in  vol.  ii.  of  his  Winninf/  of  the  West,  gives  a 
graphic  account  of  this  inroad,  basiug  his  narrative  on  the  Durrett, 
Bradford,  and  McAffee  manuscripts. 

'^  On  October  4th  Sinclair  arrived  at  "  Old  Machiuaw,"  or  Michili- 
mackinac.  De  Pe5'ster  sailed  on  his  Majesty's  sloop  Welcome,  on  Oc- 
tober 15th,  arriving  at  Detroit  on  October  20th,  after  a  voyage  of  four 
days  and  fifteen  hours. — Kelton's  An  mils  of  Fort  Mackinac  (Jacker 
edition,  1891),  p.  132. 

253 


rv 


THE     NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

bled  home  of  the  fairies  and  the  favorite  abode  of  the 
manitous  of  the  Indians.  Decked  out  in  the  gorgeous 
hues  of  autumn,  the  stately  ishind,  with  wooded  cliffs 
rising  higli  above  tlie  clear  w^aters  of  the  lake,  seemed 
to  Sinclair  a  natural  site  for  fort  and  trading -post. 
With  him  to  see  was  to  decide,  and  to  decide  was  to  act. 
Without  waiting  for  the  governor's  sanction,  he  built  a 
block -house  to  command  Ilaldihiand  Bay,  as  he  ingrati- 
atingly named  the  harbor;  and  Quebec,  entirely  willing 
to  have  the  change  made,  spared  no  pains  to  furnish  the 
requisite  carpenters  and  supplies.  All  through  the  win- 
ter of  1779-80  work  w^as  pushed  on  wharf  and  stockade; 
four  acres  were  cleared  for  the  fort,  and  all  the  prepa- 
rations were  made  for  burning  the  abundant  limestone. 
Haldimand  expressed  his  desire  that  the  post  continue 
to  bear  the  name  of  Michiliraackinac,  and  that  the  fort 
be  styled  Fort  Mackinac.  "  I  have  never  known  any 
advantage  result,"  he  says,  ''  from  changing  the  names 
of  places  long  inhabited  by  the  same  people."  * 

Fort  building  did  not  occupy  Captain  Sinclair  to  the 
exclusion  of  his  war  duties.  Before  he  had  been  a 
month  in  his  command  he  had  heard  of  Father  Gibault, 
who  had  been  at  Michilimackinac  on  a  mission,  Sinclair 
says,  from  General  Carle  ton  and  the  Bishop  of  Quebec  ; 
but  against  whom,  even  though  he  was  "  an  Individual 
of  the  Sacred  and  respectable  Clergy,"  the  doughty 
captain  proposed  to  direct  the  severity  of  the  Indians. 
Nor  was  his  ardor  cooled  during  the  winter ;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  sought  two  mandates  against  the  "  vagabond 

*  The  Sinclair-Haldimand  correspondence  is  given  in  vols.  ix.  and 
X.  of  the  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections. 

Work  on  the  new  post  was  begun  on  November  6th,  tlie  title  to  the 
island  having  been  secured  by  De  Peyster  from  the  Chippewa  chief 
Kitchienago. — Kelton's  Annals,  p.  133. 

254 


THE    WAR    IN    TIIK    NoUTIlWEST 

wlio  styles  himself  vicar-general  of  the  Illinois,"  inoruer 
to  '*  blast  any  remains  of  reputation  which  the  wretch 
may  have  been  able  to  preserve  among  scoundrels  al- 
most as  worthless  as  himself;  and  these  he  proposed 
to  serve  on  Gibault  by  means  of  the  band  of  Indians  he 
was  planning  to  send  down  the  Mississippi  to  act  against 
the  Spanish  settlements,  in  conjunction  with  General 
Campbell's  proposed  attack  on  New  Orleans  and  the 
lower  tow^ns.  Nor  was  he  to  be  duped  into  forgetting 
the  near-by  post  of  St.  Joseph.  That  "nest  of  tares," 
as  Sinclair  called  it,  '•  he  proposed  to  sw^eep  clean  "  for 
the  reception  of  the  American  general  —  a  mixture  of 
metaphors  more  expressive  than  accurate/ 

AVhen,  at  the  coming  of  Captain  Sterling,  in  October, 
IT^jo,  St.  Ange  de  Belleriv^e  had  hauled  down  the  French 
flag  at  Fort  Chartres,  to  hoist  it  again  temporarily  on  the 
territory  yielded  by  his  nation  to  Spain  by  the  secret 
treaty  of  November  3, 1TC2,  he  w^as  virtually  at  the  head 
of  an  independent  government  composed  of  himself  as 
commandant,  M.  Lefebre  as  judge,  and  Joseph  Labusciere 
;is  notary,  all  of  whom  had  come  from  the  Illinois  country. 
The  French  on  the  English  side  of  the  Mississippi  were 
so  well  satisfied  with  this  impromptu  St.  Louis  govern- 
ment that  when  Captain  Sterling  died,  in  the  December 
following  his  advent,  the  people  at  Fort  Chartres  ap- 
pealed to  St.  Ange  to  settle  their  disputes  until  a  new^ 
commandant  should  arrive.  Thus  it  happened  that  a 
French-Canadian  was  ruler  over  both  English  and  Span- 
ish territory.     So  well  did  the  old  man  fulfil  his  trust 

'  From  1768  to  1775  Father  Gibault,  as  vicar-general  of  the  Illinois 
country,  extended  his  ministrations  to  Michilimackinac  ;  his  Jesuit 
predecessor,  Father  M.  L.  Lefranc,  having  been  the  last  settled  priest 
at  that  post.  From  1761  till  1830  no  priest  was  stationed  at  the  post. 
See  list  of  priests  in  Kelton's  Annals,  p.  45  et  seq. 

255 


Tllfc:    XOIITIIWEST    UNDKll    TllUKi:    FLAGS 

that  in  lT»lT,\vli(3n  tlio  Spanish  captdiii,  Uios,  and  twenty 
five  men  came  to  St.  Louis,  they  built  their  fort,  St. 
Charles,  fourteen  miles  up  the  river.  It  was  not  until 
May  2(>,  1770,  that  St.  Ange  delivered  possession  of 
Upper  Louisiana  to  Captain  Piern-is,  and  soon  after- 
wards the  omnipresent  (iil)ault  celebrated  at  St.  Louis 
the  tirst  baptism  under  the  Spanisii  Hag.  Placed  upon 
the  balf-pay  of  a  Spanish  captain,  the  paternal  old  St. 
Ange  passed  the  uneventful  years  until  his  death  on 
December  27,  1774.  Under  the  mild  rule  of  genial 
Spanish  commanders,  the  French  town  of  St.  Louis  con- 
tinued steadily  to  grow,  notwithstanding  the  death,  on 
June  20,  1778,  of  its  founder,  Pierre  Laclede  Liguest. 
He  was  succeeded  in  business  by  his  chief  clerk,  Au- 
guste  Choteau,  who  became  the  great  trader  of  the 
Missouri.' 

Much  to  the  captain's  chagrin,  Haldimand  professed 
small  faith  in  Sinclair's  expedition ;  and,  indeed,  it 
amounted  to  little.  In  May,  1780,  a  band  of  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  traders,  servants,  and  Indians  started 
off  down  the  Mississippi  to  attack  the  Spanish  settle- 
ments and  the  Illinois  posts.  Assembling  at  Prairie 
du  Chien,  they  intercepted  river  craft  and  captured 
boats  loaded  with  provisions  ;  and  from  the  lead-mines 
they  brought  aw^a}'^  seventeen  Spanish  and  American 
prisoners.  Twenty  of  the  Canadian  v^olunteers  from 
Michilimackinac  and  a  few  of  the  traders  attacked  the 
defenceless  tc'.\ ..  of  St.  Louis,  but  early  in  the  fisht,  so 
soon  as  the  :-p  miards  began  to  defend  themselves,  the 
Sacs  and  Foxes  under  M.  Calve  fell  back,  thereby  making 
the  Indians  suspicious  of  treachery  ;   and  M.  Ducharme 


^  F.  L.  Billon's  Annals  of  St.  Louis  under  the  French  and  Spamsh 
Dominations  (St.  Louis,  1886). 

256 


tml:  war   in  tiik  xuui  iiwi: st 

iiiul  other  traders  interosteil  in  the  lead -mines  i)rovt'd 
equally  perlidioiis.  The  attack  failed,  hut  not  until 
seven  or  more  whites  had  heen  killed  and  eighteen 
])risoners  taken  and  sent  north  to  work  on  Sinclair's 
new  island  fort.  A  chief  and  three  or  four  Winnebagos 
were  the  only  Indian  losses.' 

The  attack  on  St.  Louis  and  on  Cahokia,  aci'oss  the 
river,  would  not  deserve  attention  were  it  not  for  a  return 
attack  on  St.  Joseph,  which  was  in  itself  even  less  im- 
portant than  the  St.  Louis  expedition,  but  which,  as  seen 
throut^h  the  magnifying-glass  of  Spanish  pretensions,  was 
made  a  matter  of  ini{)ortance  in  the  courts  of  Europe. 
A  mile  or  so  west  of  the  present  city  of  Niles,  Michigan, 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  river  St.  Joseph,  the  peripa- 
tetic post  of  St.  Joseph  was  resting  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution.  The  name  originated  with  La  Salle,  who 
paused  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  in  1079,  and  while 
waiting  for  Tonty,  employed  his  men  in  building  a  fort. 
From  its  situation  on  the  line  of  travel  to  the  Missis- 
sippi, St.  Joseph  was  too  important  to  be  abandoned 
altogether,  while  at  the  same  time  it  was  not  of  enough 
moment  for  extensive  fortifications.  Consequently, 
when  one  set  of  pickets  fell  into  decay  another  stockade 
was  built  at  a  different  place  on  the  river,  until  the  site 
near  Niles  was  hit  upon.  After  the  peace  of  1703, 
England  had  placed  a  small  garrison  at  the  post,  but 
when  the  tornado  of  the  Pontiac  war  passed  over  the 
place,  it  was  not  re-established,  although  it  continued  to 
be  occupied  as  a  trading- post  among  the  Pottawato- 
mies,  the  leading  trader,   Louis  Chevallier,  being  the 

'  Sinclair  places  the  number  of  whites  killed  at  sixty-eight ;  Elihu 
H.  Shepard,  in  his  Early  History  of  St.  Loitis,  says  that  forty  were 
killed.  Billon  says  seven,  and  gives  the  names.  A  few  others  may 
have  been  killed  at  Cahokia. 

R  257 


TIIK     NORTHWEST    INDKU    TIIKKK    FLAGS 

king's  man  in  the  district.'  Tn  October,  1777,  Tlioraas 
Brady,  Clark's  commandant  at  Caliokia,  had  headed  a 
raid  on  the  place  and  captured  some  merchandise;  but 
on  his  retreat  ho  and  his  party  were  captured.  Brady 
professed  his  entire  willingness  to  join  the  English  cause; 
but  ultimately  made  his  escape  and  returned  to  (^ahokia. 
In  time  he  became  sheriff  of  St.  Clair  County.  In  1780 
St.  Joseph  contained  eight  houses  and  seven  shanties, 
and  the  entire  population  consisted  of  forty-five  French 
persons  and  four  Pawnee  slaves." 

Sinclair's  attack  on  St.  Louis,  as  has  been  said,  was  a 
part  of  a  larger  plan  to  recover  the  Mississippi  valley 
for  England.  When  Spain  declared  war  against  Eng- 
land in  1779,  she  made  good  her  declaration  by  seizing 
the  English  posts  of  Natchez,  Baton  Rouge,  and  Mobile; 
and  these  stations,  together  with  St.  Louis,  gave  her 
practically  the  control  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  If  now 
she  could  establish  herself  in  the  Xorthwest,  she  would 
then  be  in  a  position  either  to  secure  the  Lake  country, 
or  at  least  would  have  something  to  trade  with  England 
for  Gibraltar,  the  British  possession  of  which  stronghold 
was  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  his  most  Catholic  Majes- 
ty." Accordingly,  in  the  January  of  1781,  Don  Fran- 
cisco Cruzat,  commander  and  lieutenant-governor  of  the 
western  parts  and  districts  of  Illinois,  sent  forth  from 
his  stone  palace  the  militia  officers  Don  Eugenio  Pourre, 
Don  Carlos  Tayon,  and  the  interpreter  Don  Luis  Cheval- 

*  Petition  of  Chevallier,  October  9, 1780  — IMdiinand  Papers. 

■  Ceusus  of  St.  Joseph,  in  the  letter  of  C.  Anise,  dated  St.  Joseph, 
June  30,  1780.— Ilaldimahd  Papers. 

^  Edward  G.  Mason,  in  the  Magazine  of  American  History,  for  May, 
1886,  has  discussed,  witli  a  wealth  of  detail,  "  The  March  of  the  Span- 
iards across  Illinois."  The  Ilaldimand  Papers  correct  some  of  the 
details,  but  Mr.  Mason  has  worked  out  his  problem  with  great  fulness 
of  knowledge. 

258 


o 
o 


O 


I' 


THE    WAK    IN    TIIK    XOUTIIWEST 

lier/  Jiccumpiuiiril  by  ji  hiiiid  oT  Indians  to  inako  a  winter 
journey  of  four  hundred  miles  to  capture  the  deserted 
post  of  St.  Jose[)li !  The  fatigues  of  that  march,  tlie 
cold  of  the  winter,  the  weight  of  their  food-l>unlens,  all 
were  set  forth  in  stnui^^  st  ])hrase  in  the  repoit  niach^ 
by  the  intrepid  Spaniards.  As  they  toiled  northward 
they  gathered  Indian  adherents  as  a  snowball  gatliers 
snow — for  their  cry  was  booty.  AVith  considerate  lack 
of  details,  they  re[)orted  that  they  made  prisoners  of  the 
few  English  they  found  at  the  ])ost,  the  fact  bring  that 
there  were  at  the  place  certainly  no  English  and  prob- 
ably no  French,  save  perhaps  a  few  trappers.  'vDon 
Kiigenio  Purre  took  possession,  in  the  name  of  the  king, 
of  that  place  and  its  dependencies,  and  of  the  river  of  the 
lUinois;  in  consecpience  whereof,"  says  the  Spanish  re- 
j)ort,'  "the  standaid  of  his  Majesty  was  there  disi)layed 
during  the  whole  time.  He  took  the  English  one  and 
delivered  it  on  his  arrival  at  St.  Louis  to  Don  Francisco 

'  Mr.  Miison  conjortiiros  that  this  was  the  Louis  Clievallior  wlio 
was  king's  man  at  St.  Joseph  ;  hut  such  could  not  have  i)ccn  tlie  case. 
Chevallier  of  St.  Joseph  settled  at  that  { ist  about  1745;  at  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution  he  acted  under  tht  orders  of  Hamilton  and  De 
Peysler  in  fitting  out  the  Indians  against  Vincennes,  and  clothing  them 
when  they  returned  naked.  In  June,  1780,  a  detachment  of  Canadians 
and  Indians  appeared  at  St.  Josei)h  to  remove  the  white  people  to 
Michilimackinac.  Chevallier,  then  sixty-eight  years  old,  together  with 
liis  wife  (aged  seventy  years),  abandoning  lands  and  houses,  orchard.s 
and  gardens,  furniture,  cattle,  and  debts,  left  the  banks  of  the  St. 
Joseph  for  the  upper  country,  where  he  was  ill-treated  by  Sinclair. 
He  petitioned  Haldimand  for  payment  of  his  advances,  and  he  could 
scarcely  have  acted  against  St.  Joseph  during  the  time  he  was  pressing 
for  a  settlement.  Sinclair's  objection  to  auditing  his  accounts  was 
that  Chevallier  had  no  right  to  trade  on  his  own  account,  being  a 
member  of  the  General  Company  of  the  Merchants  of  Mackinac,  with 
whom  the  commandant  dealt  exclusively. 

'  Wharton's  Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  United 
States,  vol.  v.,  p.  363. 

259 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDEU    THREE     FLAGS 

Cruzat,  the  commandant  of  that  post."  The  report  of 
this  expedition,  forwarded  tlirough  military  channels, 
either  reached  Madrid  more  than  a  vear  after  it  occur- 
red,  or  else  it  was  purposely  held  back.  At  any  rate, 
it  appeared  in  the  Madrid  Gazette  of  March  12,  1782,  at 
the  exact  time  it  was  needed  to  disturb  the  discussions 
of  France,  Spain,  England,  and  America  as  to  the  ques- 
tions of  bounchiries,  and  gave  a  color  of  justice  to 
Spain's  demand  that  the  line  of  demarcation  be  drawn 
so  as  to  give  her  the  territory  now  included  within  the 
States  of  Mississippi,  Alabama,  a  part  of  Georgia,  Ten- 
nessee, Kentucky,  a  large  part  of  Ohio,  and  all  of  Michi- 
gan, Indiana,  Hlinois,  and  Wisconsin.  Happily,  however, 
the  American  commissioners  ever  contended  for,  and  ulti- 
mately obtained,  the  Mississippi  as  our  western  boundary. 
In  October,  1779,  De  Peyster,  liaving  turned  the  post 
at  Michilimackinac  over  to  Patrick  Sinclair,  relieved 
Lernoult  at  Detroit.  De  Peyster  was  nothing  if  not 
energetic,  and  in  his  first  report  to  Ilaldimand  he  was 
able  to  announce  the  surprise  and  capture  of  Colonel 
Rogers's  party,  on  their  way  frorr  th  <3  falls  of  the  Ohio 
to  Fort  Pitt,  by  the  Girtys  anc  iilliot.  with  their  Sha- 
wanese  band — "  a  stroke  that  must  o-reatlv  disconcert 
the  rebels  at  Pittsburg. " '  To  Captain  McKee,"  at  the 
Shawanese  towns,  De  Peyster  wrote  begging  the  discov- 
erv  and  return  of  a  woman  named  Pefi:ov  West  and  her 
young  daughter  Xancy,  both  of  whom  had  been  taken 
a  year  before,  near  Fort  Pitt,  when  the   father  was 

'  De  Pe3'ster  to  Haldimand,  November  1,  1779. 

■^  McKee  was  called  captain,  but  be  bad  no  rank.  He  bad  been  in 
tbe  Indian  service  for  twenty-two  years,  and  Lord  Dunmore  bad  of- 
fered bini  a  commission  in  one  of  tbe  provincial  battalions  to  be  raised 
near  Pittsburg  ;  but  tbe  commissions  were  intercepted  by  tbe  Ameri- 
cans.—De  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  Marcli  10,  1780. 

260 


THE    WAR    IN    THE    NUUTUWEST 

killed,  and  the  mother  and  two  daughters  were  divided. 
''  If,  sir,  it  be  possible  to  find  the  mother  and  the  other 
sister,"  writes  the  commandant,  '*  I  will  not  spare  ex- 
pense; please  therefore  to  employ  some  active  people  to 
go  in  search  of  them,  assuring  t'.^  Indians  of  a  good 
price,  and  my  grateful  acknowledgment."  One  of  the 
girls  had  been  brought  to  Detroit,  where  she  had  found 
a  friend  and  protector  in  Mrs.  de  Peyster;  and  the  heart 
of  this  motherl}^  Scotchwoman  had  been  touched  by  the 
child's  woes. 

The  p^  u.  .'  *  r^ampaign  for  1780  was  for  a  Detroit 
party  of  sJ*  'ei,  o  join  the  Indians  in  clearing  the 
valley  of  the  kUar ..  to  the  Ohio,  while  Sinclaii^s  Upper 
Lake  Indians  joined  their  l)rothers  on  the  Wabash  in 
"amusing  Mr.  Clark  at  the  falls.''  M.  Chevallier,  at  St. 
Joseph,  reported  that  the  Pottawatomies  in  that  region 
liad  awakened  from  their  letharo^y  and  were  readv  to 
take  the  war-path.  Unfortunately  for  all  these  line 
plans,  there  spread  from  St.  Louis  throughout  all  the 
Indian  '^ountry  the  report  that  Ireland  had  revolted; 
that  Jamaica  had  been  taken  by  Count  D'Estaing,  who 
had  beaten  Admiral  Biron ;  that  New  York  was  block- 
aded by  the  French  and  Americans  ;  that  the  ''  Prince  of 
Monfacon"  was  in  the  St.  Lawrence  for  the  siege  of  Que- 
bec ;  that  Natchez,  Mobile,  and  Pensacola  had  been  taken 
by  M.  Galvez,  gorei'^or  of  New  Orleans;  that  the  United 
States  had  sent  Colonel  Clark  to  establish  a  considerable 
.itone  fort  at  the  entrance  of  the  Ohio  River  and  another 
at  Cahokia;  and,  to  cap  the  clhnax,  that  the  Empress 
of  Eussia  appeared  to  be  surprised  that  England  should 
suppose  that  she  would  mix  herself  in  an  of  Britain's 
troubles,*  while  the  inhabitants  of  Artois  had  furnished 

'  Mr.  Papin,  trader  at  St.  Louis,  lO  Mr  Reiihe,  hi.,  comrade  at  !Mi 

261 


TlIK    NOIiTIIWHST    UNDER    TIF  REE    FLAGS 


the  Kinf^  of  France  a  vessel  of  the  line  of  six  guns,  with 
promise  of  a  lar^e  I't.Mvard  to  all  the  crew,  from  captain 
to  the  lowest  sailor,  if  they  should  take  another  vessel 
with  even  one  man  and  one  gun  more.  All  this  and 
much  more  of  like  tenor  the  Pottawatomies  heard  on 
their  way  to  Vincennes,  and  thereupon  the  greater  part 
turned  back;'  and  those  who  did  go  on  found,  to  their 
cliagrin,  that  but  twenty-three  Virginians  occupied  the 
post.  The  Delawares  and  Shawanese,  however,  daily 
sent  into  Detroit  scalps  and  prisoners.  They  had  a 
great  field  to  act  upon:  for  a  thousand  families,  in  ordei- 
to  shun  the  op|)ression  of  Congress,  report  said,  had 
gone  to  K(^ntucky,  where  they  threatened  to  become 
formidable  to  both  the  Indians  and  the  posts. 

In  the  September  of  1781  the  Indian  agent  Alexandei' 
J\rclvee,  in  company  with  a  detachment  of  Butlers  Ran- 
gers and  Brant's  Mingo  band,  made  a  descent  into  Ken- 
tucky ;  but  when  the  Indians  learned  that  Clark  was  un- 
likely to  disturb  their  towns  that  year,  they  refused  to 
advance  to  the  falls  of  the  Ohio,'^  and  contented  them- 
selves with  petty  warfare.  On  his  return  to  the  Upper 
Shawanese  villages  McKee  found  his  helper  Elliott,  who 
told  how  his  party,  having  discovered  that  the  Moravian 
Indians  were  secretly  sendin^:  intellifi^ence  to  Fort  Pitt 
and  endeavoring  to  bring  the  Americans  down  upon 
them,  had  fallen  upon  these  peace-loving  folk  and  forced 
them  to  find  new  homes  at  Upper  Sandusky.  Six  of 
their  teachers  went  with  them,  the  principal  one  of  whom 

chilimackinac,  Slarch  23,  1780.  In  this  letter  "the  United  Slates" 
is  first  mentioned  in  Northwestern  correspondence. 

'  Clievallier  to ,  April  30,  1780.     De  Peyster  to  Haldimaud,  May 

17,  1780. 

^  Hnldunand  Papera,  Captain  Thompson  to  De  Peyster,  September 
26,  1781. 

262 


TIIK    WAR    IN    TIIK    NORTHWEST 

appeared  to  McKee  to  be  "a  Jesuitical  old  man  and,  if 
I  am  not  mistaken,  employed  by  the  enemy,  tliough  he 
denies  it.'"  McKee  thought  it  not  likely  that  the  Mora- 
vian Indians  would  be  friends  to  the  English  so  long  as 
their  white  teachers  remained  with  them.' 

De  Peyster  called  the  Moravian  teachers  before  him 
at  Detroit.  They  were  accompanied  by  Captain  I'ipe, 
a  Delaware,  wlio  not  only  spoke  a  good  word  for  the 
prisoners,  but  added  empiiasis  to  his  remarks  by  depos- 
iting fourteen  «^calps  as  a  token  of  his  sincerity,  also  call- 
ing attention  to  the  "  fresh-meat"  (prisoners)  he  had  sent 
to  prepare  his  way.  After  replying  to  Captain  ri|)e 
that  the  universal  complaint  of  the  warriors  was  that 
the  Moravian  teachers  had  always  kept  the  Americans 
informed  as  to  the  British  and  Indian  movements,  De 
Peyster  closely  questioned  the  teachers,  who  denied 
having  given  any  information.'* 

The  Moravians  were  not  strictly  truthful  in  their  pro- 
fessions of  innocence.  On  March  14,  1778,  their  leader, 
Zeisbei'ger,  had  sent  to  Colonel  Morgan  at  P'ort  Piit 
a  message  from  that  Captain  White  Eyes,  who  had 
announced  to  Detroit  the  independence  of  the  United 
States;  and  in  his  letter  he  gave  to  the  Americans  in- 
formation that  the  AVyandots  were  on  the  war-path,  to- 
gether with  such  like  intelligence  as  had  come  to  him. 
He  also  enclosed  copies  of  Hamilton's  proclamations — the 
one  inviting  loyal  subjects  of  Great  Britain  to  repair  to 

'  llaldimand  Papers,  McKce  to  De  Peyster.  September  26,  1781. 

^  Haldimand  was  deeply  chagrined  over  the  failure  of  this  expedi- 
tion, for  he  had  hoped  to  destroy  Clark's  activity.  He  bitterly 
reproaches  tiie  Indians,  though  he  admits  that  they  acted  as  was  their 
custom  ;  and  he  laments  the  useless  expense  of  clothing  and  feeding 
such  thankless  allies. — Haldimand  to  ,   November  1,  1781. 

^  Haldimand  Papers,  Minutes  of  Council  of  November  9,  178,'. 

263 


TlIK    XOUTnWKST    UXDCU    T11UI::E    FLAGS 

Detroit,  and  the  other  promising  safe  escort  to  such  as 
might  desire  to  "change  the  hardships  expei'ienced  un- 
der their  present  masters  for  security  and  freedom  un- 
der their  kiwful  sovereign."  The  prochunations  were 
accompanied  by  a  manifesto  signed  by  eight  refugees 
who,  with  their  families,  had  sought  shelter  at  Detroit. 
White  Eyes  reported  that  he  had  just  returned  from 
Detroit,  whither  Colonel  Morgan  had  sent  him,  and 
that  nothing  was  to  be  apprehended  from  that  quarter. 
''I  observed,^'  says  this  shrewd  Indian,  ''that  the  gov- 
ernor wants  to  restore  peace  by  making  war,  but  I  don't 
see  that  he  is  strong  enough  to  do  that.''  Unquestion- 
ably the  Moravians  did  all  they  dared  to  do  in  warning 
the  Americans  ;  they  were  settled  in  war's  pathway,  and 
they  were  made  to  suffer  from  both  sides.' 

Had  they  accepted  the  invitation  of  Colonel  Brod- 
livjad,  who,  in  1781,  urged  them  to  return  to  Fort  Pitt, 
two  frontier  tragedies  would  have  been  spared.  When 
the  followers  of  John  IIuss  were  driven  from  Bohemia 
and  Moravia,  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  they  had 
found  a  friend  in  the  pious  Count  von  Zinzendorf,  the 
vouno:  son  of  a  Saxon  minister  of  state.  On  his  estates 
the  Moravian  brotherhood  was  organized ;  and  in  1741 
Zinzendorf,  having  been  banished  from  Saxony,  came 
to  America  and  founded  the  Moravian  Church  at  Beth- 
lehem, Pennsylvania.  Successful  far  beyond  other  mis- 
sions, the  Moravian  churches  pushed  into  the  wilderness 
their  banner  of  peace  and  good- will ;  and  in  1768  they 
founded  in  the  Tuscarawas  and  Muskinmim  vallevs 
Sciionbrunn  (the  shining  spring).  Lichtenau  (the  past- 
ure of  light),  Salem  (peace),  Li\d  Gnadenhiitten  (the 


'  The  originals  of  this  correspondence  are  to  be  found  in  the  State 
Depart  men  1  MSS. 

264 


\!{KNT    S(  [IIYI  KK    ]>V.    T'KYSTKIJ 

Majo»'  uud  Lioiit   C<>)(>in'l  stli  or  Kiti^'V  l{'>:iriMiit  d  Foot.  1TTT-1T93 

Coloiit'l  in  tilt'  Hritisli  Aniiy.  171»:« 

(.'oloiifl  \-i  l{<-t!in)(Mit  Muinlru's  V<»luiileers.  lT'.»t'i 


T  1 1  K    \V  A  \l     I  \    T  U  E    N  O  It  '1'  1 1  W  E  S  T 

tents  of  grace),  surrounding  their  liuts  and  rude  chap- 
els with  smiling  fields  of  corn.  Opposed  to  war,  these 
Christian  Indians  were  objects  of  suspicion  by  both  the 
English  and  the  Americans. 

Part  of  this  story  David  Zeisberger  told  to  De  Peys- 
ter.  The  little  old  missionarv,  his  face  seamed  bv  the 
cares  of  frontier  life,  but  still  smiling  and  cheerful  by 
reason  of  inward  content,  stood  before  his  accuser  and 
made  answer  for  himself  and  his  companions,  Sense- 
mann  and  Edwards.  The  more  rugged  and  defiant 
Heckewelder  pleaded  his  own  cause.  The  missionaries 
nuide  a  favorable  impression  not  only  on  De  Peyster, 
hut  also  on  the  townspeople  generally.  Although  he 
could  not  s])eak  their  language,  Father  Peter  Simple, 
the  priest,  offered  them  the  hospitalities  of  the  place ; 
^[cKee  and  Elliott  paid  them  a  visit ;  Protestant  mer- 
chants broug'.t  children  to  be  baptized,  and  some  there 
were  who  sou^^ht  them  for  the  marriafi:e  ceremony. 
Returning  to  Sandusky  they  spent  a  bitter  winter 
with  their  little  flock  ;  but  in  March,  1782,  the  teach- 
ers and  their  families  were  ordered  to  Detroit,  and 
were  established  on  Chinpewa  lands  along  the  banks 
of  the  Clinton  River,  near  the  southwest  corner  of  the 
present  city  of  Mt.  Clemens.  There  they  pitched  anew 
their  "  tents  of  grace  "  and  founded  another  Gnaden- 
hiitten.  Supported  through  the  long  spring  by  ai.  am.ple 
supply  of  provisions  from  the  king's  stores,'  the  little 
band  of  nineteen  persons  was  increased  to  half  a  hun- 
dred, all  dwelling  in  well-built  houses.  With  the  end 
of  the  Revolution  and  the  death  of  the  generous  Chip- 
pewa chief  who  had  offered  them  hospitality,  the  meek 
Moravian  converts  were  driven  from  their  retreat  by 
ilie  heathen  nations ;  and  on  April  20,  178<^  they  gath- 
ered for  the  last  time  to  sing  songs  of  praise  and  thanks- 

265 


THE    NOUTJIWEST    UXhKli    T  11  U  K  K    FLAGS 

i^iviriff  before  t;ikin<j:  to  the  boats  that  were  to  bear  tlieni 
down  the  tortuous  river  and  on  to  the  Cuyahoga,  whence, 
as  a  remnant,  they  returned  to  dwell  on  the  l)anksof  the 
Thames,  not  far  from  the  spot  where  Tecumseh  met  his 
fate  in  the  AV^ar  of  1812.' 

Scarcely  had  the  Moravians  reached  their  Michi^jan 
home  than  they  learned  of  the  terrible  massacre  of 
their  brothers  on  the  Muskingum."  Starvation  having 
threatened  the  Sandusky  settlement,  a  band  of  the 
Moravian  exiles  returned  to  the  towns  of  Salem  and 
Gnadenhiitten  to  gather  the  corn  that  had  been  left  in 
the  fields  during  the  winter  of  17^1-82.  In  the  March 
of  the  latter  year  a  band  of  some  eighty  or  ninety  Ameri- 
cans under  Colonel  David  Williamson  surrounded  the 
harmless  and  unsuspecting  corn  -  gatherers,  captured 
them,  voted  to  put  them  to  death,  and  in  cold  blood 
massacred  ninety -six  young  men,  old  men,  women,  and 
children  belonging  to  a  people  who  had  actually  em- 
braced the  religion  professed  by  their  butchers. 

In  reporting  the  massacre  of  the  Moravian  Indians, 
De  Peyster  would  not  pretend  to  say  how  it  would  op- 
erate when  the  Indians  had  overcome  the  consternation 
this  unparalleled  cruelty  had  thrown  them  in;    "they 

'  Captain  Henry  A.  Ford  spent  mncli  time  and  la^or  in  tracing  the 
history  of  the  old  Moravian  mission  at  Mt.  Clemens.  See  his  article 
in  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collectionfi,  vol.  x.,  p.  107.  Zeis- 
berger  died  vX  Goshen  in  the  Tuscarawas  valley,  in  1801,  at  the  auc 
of  88.  Hcckewelder  died  at  Bethlehem,  in  1823,  at  the  age  of  80.  Of 
all  the  colony  at  Gnadenhiitten,  Richard  Connor  remained  behind. 
Born  in  Ireland,  he  came  to  Maryland,  married  a  white  girl  who  had 
been  a  Shawanese  prisoner  ;  in  1774  tlie  two  had  gone  to  the  Moravian 
towns  in  search  of  their  captive  son,  and  there  they  became  attached 
to  these  peaceful  people  and  went  with  them  to  Clinton,  or  Huron, 
as  the  river  was  then  called.  The  family  has  continued  in  Mt.  Clem- 
ens to  this  day. 

'  Ilaldimand  Papers,  D?  Peyster  to  ILildimand.  May  13,  1782. 

266 


TlIK    WAR    IN    TUK    X  ()  KTll  W  K  ST 

daily  bring  me  provisions  and  beg  of  ine  to  observe 
they  give  aid  to  their  enemies,  who  acknowledge  to 
have  received  kind  treatment;  and  I  am  bold  to  sav 
that,  exce|)t  in  cases  where  prisoners  have  been  too 
weak  to  march,  few  ptiople  have  suffered,  and  we  have 
had  manv  instances  of  the  Indians  havinu:  carried  the 
sick  for  several  da  vs.'' 

Next  to  the  ca[)tui'e  of  Hamilton,  the  massacre  of  the 
Moravian  Indians  ])roved  to  b(^  the  most  important 
event  in  the  Northwest  during  the  Revolution ;  for  that 
slaughter  of  .nnocents  found  its  consequences  in  the 
Crawford  campaign.  From  the  English  at  Deti'oit  and 
^licliilimackinac,  we  turn  now  to  the  Americans  at 
Fort  Pitt. 

The  abortive  campaign  of  General  Mcintosh  in 
1778-79,  followed  by  the  abandonment  of  Fort  J.au- 
rens— the  first  strictly  American  work  within  the  pres- 
ent State  of  Ohio — and  then  of  Fort  Mcintosh  on  the 
Beaver,  naturally  caused  great  uneasiness  along  the 
frontiers.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutior  Fort 
Pitt  was  occupied  by  John  Neville,  with  a  small  force 
of  Virginia  militia;  but  in  1778  Neville  was  succeeded 
by  Brigadier-general  Edward  Hand,  and  the  post  came 
into  the  possession  of  the  United  States.  After  Hand 
came  Mcintosh,  who  in  turn  was  succeeded  bv  Colonel 
Brodhead,  under  whom,  in  April,  1781,  the  Delaware 
villafi:es  on  the  Muskino:um  were  laid  waste.  Brodhead 
had  been  ordered  to  aid  Clark  in  his  western  enter- 
prises, and  in  the  August  of  1781  a  Pennsylvania  force 
of  one  hundred  and  seven  mounted  men  under  Colonel 
Archibald  Locbry,  on  its  way  to  join  the  Virginia 
leader,  had  been  ambushed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Great 
^liami,  and  all  had  been  either  IJlled  or  captured.  The 
old  territorial  q.,arr<ds  over  the  site  of  Fort  Pitt  now 

267 


TIIH    NOIlTinVKST    UNDKIi    TIIRIMC    FLAGS 

broke  out  nfrosh,  and  a  disputo  between  Colonel  T5rod 
head  and  his  successor,  Colonel  Gibson,  added  fuel  to 
the  tlunie ;  so  that  the  post  was  in  a  state  of  anarchy 
when,  in  October,  1781,  the  Scotch-Irish  general,  Will- 
iam Irvine,  of  Carlisle,  with  the  veteran  Second  Brigade 
of  the  Pennsylvania  line,  appeared  on  the  scene  to  bring 
order  out  of  chaos.' 

(ieneral  Irvine,  a  post  commander  of  the  most  ap- 
proved type,  set  about  building  a  substantial  fort,  pro- 
viding for  the  small  post  at  Wheeling,  and  drilling  his 
men.  Those  were  the  days  of  flogging  in  the  army, 
and  ''  one  hundred  lashes  well  laid  on  "  was  a  daily  oc- 
currence as  the  punishment  of  desertion  or  other  fla- 
grant infraction  of  army  regulations.  The  fact  seems 
to  be  that  Pittsburg,  in  those  days,  was  the  centre  of 
turbulence  and  disorder;  and  that  the  Scotch-Irish  liv- 
ing thereabouts  were  much  better  at  gouging  each 
other's  eyes  out  in  their  fights,  or  at  massacring  Ind- 
ians, than  they  were  at  regular,  systematic  warfare 
under  proper  officers.  As  a  result,  there  were  more 
Indian  forays  into  the  neighborhood  of  Fort  Pitt,  and 
more  disastrous  expeditions  from  that  post,  than  hap- 
pened on  the  Kentucky  frontier.  The  Indians  had  re- 
spect for  Clark,  but  up  to  this  time  they  had  no  reason 
to  fear  the  commandants  at  Fort  Pitt,  whose  only  suc- 
cesses had  consisted  in  burning  deserted  Indian  towns. 

It  required  no  remarkable  foresight  on  General  Ir- 

^  Irvine  was  born  near  Enniskillen,  Ireland,  November  3,  1741. 
His  grandfather  was  at  the  battle  of  the  Boyne,  and  he  was  a  College 
of  Dublin  man,  and  a  cornet  of  dragoons,  before  he  came  to  Pennsyl 
vania  with  his  brothers,  Andrew  and  Matthew,  in  1764.  He  was  a 
colonel  in  the  Quebec  expedition  of  1776,  and  was  captured.  On  his 
belated  exchange,  in  May,  1776,  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  briii 
adier- general.  For  particulars  of  his  life,  see  0.  W.  Butterfields 
Crairfurd'd  Campaign  (Cincinnati,  1873). 

268 


Tin:    WAU    IX    TIIK    NORTHWEST 

vine's  part  to  roncli  the  same  conclusion  that  Clark  ha«l 
reached  lour  years  before— that  the  hest  way  to  del'enii 
the  frontier  is  to  carry  the  war  into  the  eneniv*s  coun- 
try.  An  attack  on  Detroit,  therefore,  was  planned, 
and  General  Irvine  went  to  Philadelphia  to  hiy  the 
matter  before  Congress  and  Washington.  lie  left  in 
command  lliat  Colonel  John  Gibson  who  put  into  Eng- 
hsh  Logan's  message  to  Lord  Dunmore.' 

On  General  Irvine's  return  in  the  March  of  1T82  the 
Revolution  was  virtuallv  at  an  end;  but  Indian  raids 
continued  unabated,  and  among  the  restless  frontiers- 
men at  Fort  Pitt  there  was  talk,  and  something  more, 
of  an  irruption  into  Ohio  and  the  formation  of  an  inde- 
pendent state. 

To  put  a  stop  to  both  of  these  disturbances  an  expe- 
dition against  Sandusky'  nuule  rendezvous  near  the  pres- 
ent site  of  Steubenville,  in  May,  1782,  aial  on  the  twen- 
tv-fifth  be^iran  its  march  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
with  a  force  of  four  hundred  and  eighty  men,  organized 

'  Butterfleld's  Crmrford's  Campaign,  p.  33.  Gibsor  was  born  at 
Laucaster,  Pennsylvania,  May  23,  1740  ;  he  was  an  excellent  classical 
scholar  for  his  day;  at  eighleeii  he  was  in  Fuibes's  expedition  fur  Ihe 
recovery  of  Fort  Pitt ;  after  the  French  and  Indian  War  he  was  a 
trader  of  that  post ;  he  was  captured  by  the  Indians,  was  ad(>i)ted  by 
a  squaw,  and  was  made  acquainted  with  Indian  manners,  customs, 
and  language;  he  escaped  in  time  to  enter  the  Dunmore  expedition 
of  1774,  during  which  the  Mingo  chief  made  his  lament  in  language 
that  Gibson  translated  into  classical  English;  he  served  in  the  New 
York  and  New  Jersey  campaigns  as  conuiiander  of  a  Virginia  regi- 
ment ;  he  was  a  member  of  the  Pennsylvania  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion in  1790;  w^as  secretary  of  the  Indiana  from  1800  till  that  territory 
became  a  state;  and  on  April  10,  1822,  he  died  at  his  daughter's  iiome, 
on  Braddock's  Field. 

■  Mr.  Butterfield  takes  pains  to  prove  that  the  Crawford  expedition 
was  against  Sandusky,  and  not  against  the  Moravian  remnant,  as 
Heckewelder,  Hildreth,  and  others  have  asserted.  See  his  CraicfonVs 
Campaign,  p.  78. 

269 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

into  eighteen  companies  under  officers  selected  by  the 
men.  For  commander  the  soldiers  elected  the  Virgin- 
ian, William  Crawford,  by  five  majority  over  General 
Williamson,  the  leader  of  the  ninety  men  who,  during 
the  previous  March,  had  put  to  death  the  Moravian  Ind- 
ians under  circumstances  of  such  cold-blooded  cruelty  as 
to  induce  Benjamin  Franklin  to  believe  in  a  hereafter  of 
punishments  and  rewards.  In  youth  Crawford  and  Wash- 
ington had  been  playmates ;  in  early  manhood  they 
fought  together  at  Braddock's  defeat,  and  marched  to- 
gether with  Forbes's  army  of  reoccupation ;  when  war 
was  over  for  a  time  it  w^as  Craw^ford  who  surveyed 
Washington's  lands  on  the  Ohio,  and  wiio,  in  1770, 
acted  as  the  latter's  host  and  guide  in  the  journey  downi 
the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha ;  and  in  the  Revolu- 
tion the  two  friends  w^ere  together  on  Long  Island,  in 
crossing  the  Delaware,  and  at  Trenton  and  Princeton. 

JS'o  sooner  had  the  Americans  crossed  the  Ohio  than 
the  Indian  scouts  learned  from  a  deserter  that  a  force  of 
a  thousand  men  were  advancing  on  the  Sandusky  towns. 
Immediately  the  chiefs  despatched  a  runner  to  demand 
both  ammunition  and  a  detachment  of  men  from  De- 
troit. De  Peyster  was  not  slow^  to  comply.  On  May 
15th,  he  called  together  the  chiefs  of  the  Wyandots,  Pot- 
tawatomies,  Chippewas,  and  Ottawas,  and,  on  present- 
ing the  war-belts  from  the  Six  Xations  and  the  Shawa- 
nese,  Delaw-ares,  and  Mingoes,  he  urged  them  to  join 
their  brothers  of  the  South  in  repelling  the  advance  of 
the  white  men,  '*  for  it  is  your  villages  the  Indians  are 
coming  against."  De  Peyster  apologized  for  the  fact 
that  the  strings  were  dry,  explaining  that  such  had  been 
the  desire  of  their  brethren,  who  feared  that  if  rum  were 
given  the  savages  they  would  '^continue  drunk  in  the 
streets,"  and  not  go  to  war.     "  Father!"  x'cproachfully 

270 


THE    WAR    IX    THE    NORTHWEST 

cried  a  Huron  chief,  "I  arise  to  tell  you  that  I  want 
'  water '  to  sharpen  your  axe,  and  I  shall  sing  the  war-song 
although  one-half  of  my  people  are  already  killed  by  the 
enemy." 

Although  Haldimand  was  not  alarmed  for  the  safety 
of  Detroit,  and  also  was  opposed  to  yielding  to  the 
demands  of  the  Six  Nations  and  Dela wares  for  an 
expedition  to  reduce  Fort  Pitt,  yet  he  gave  cordial 
sanction  to  the  Sandusky  expedition.  ''  I  hope,"  he 
writes  to  De  Peyster,  "that  the  melancholy  event  at 
Muskingum  will  rouse  the  Indians  to  a  firm  and  vigor- 
ous opposition  and  resentment  at  Sandusk  or  wher- 
ever they  shall  meet  the  enemy.  .  .  .1  d  ^»end  upon 
your  exerting  your  utmost  efforts  and  abilities  as  well 
to  convince  the  Indians  of  the  indispensable  necessity 
there  is  for  their  resisting  this  shock  with  unanimity 
and  firmness,  their  future  existence  as  a  people  depend- 
ing on  it,  as  in  taking  every  possible  precaution  for  the 
security  of  your  post,  in  which  I  am  persuaded  I  shall 
not  be  disappointed."  *  Mounting  a  body  of  Rangers 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Caldwell,  De  Peyster 
sent  them,  together  with  McKee  and  a  number  of  Cana- 
dians, to  support  the  savages. 

Marching  along  Wilkinson's  trail,  Crawford's  force, 
on  June  4th,  reached  a  deserted  town  of  the  \Vyandots, 
and  proceeded  to  Upper  Sandusky,  where,  in  his  per- 
plexity, the  leader  called  a  council  of  war,  at  which  it 
was  decided  to  continue  the  advance  during  that  after- 
noon. If  the  Indians  were  not  encountered  the  army 
was  to  return.  Meanwhile  the  scouts  found  an  Indian 
trace,  but  did  not  discover  the  impassable  swamp  that 


I         '  HaldirrMnd  Papers.    De  Peyster's  letter  of  May  14,  1782,  and  cor- 
respondence following. 

271 


TllK    NORTHWEST    UNDEii   THREE    FLAGS 

flanked  it.  Pursuing  their  way,  the  scouts  met  the 
Indians  running  towards  the  advancing  force,  and  im- 
mediately^ fell  back  slowlv  before  the  on-comin<2r  sav- 
ages,  sending  a  mounted  messenger  to  warn  the  gen- 
eral. Highly  elated  at  the  prospect  of  battle,  the  men 
ran  forward.  From  a  grove  in  which  the  little  band 
of  Delawares  endeavored  to  make  a  stand,  Crawford 
dislodged  them ;  and  when  they  attempted  to  gain 
the  right  of  the  army,  Major  Leet  gallantly  prevented. 
At  this  juncture  the  Wyandots  appeared,  and  the  Dela- 
wares slipped  around  to  attack  the  Americans  in  the 
rear.  At  nightfall  the  still  hopeful  Craw^ford  saw  the 
Indians  withdraw;  and  all  night  through  the  Ameri- 
cans and  the  savages  lay  on  their  arms  behind  great 
fires  built  to  o^uard  ao^ainst  a  nif^^ht  attack.  With  re- 
turning  daylight  the  battle  was  renewed,  the  Ameri- 
cans maintaining  their  position  in  the  island  -  grove, 
w^hile  all  about  them  the  Indians  were  concealed  in  the 
tall  prairie -grass,  the  Delawares  on  the  south  and  the 
Wyandots  on  the  north.  Although  many  of  his  men 
were  overcome  by  heat  and  the  scanty  and  bad  w^ater, 
and  although  many  were  wounded,  Crawford  was  pre- 
paring for  an  attack  in  force,  w4ien  suddenly  the  squad- 
ron of  Rangers  from  Detroit  appeared  on  the  field. 
Attack  now  was  changed  to  defence;  and  while  the 
officers  were  deliberating  a  band  of  two  hundred  Sha- 
wanese  s^vept  up  from  the  south.  Retreat  became  im- 
perative. The  dead  were  buried  and  fires  kindled  over 
their  graves :  the  wounded  were  placed  on  horses,  and 
at  dark  the  force  moved.  The  savages,  uncertain 
whether  the  movement  was  an  advance  or  a  retreat, 
did  not  attack  promptly;  and  although  in  the  confu- 
sion some  of  the  Americans  rode  into  the  swamp,  yet 
at  davbreak   the  little  armv,  now   three  hundred  in 

273 


THE    WAR    IX    THE    NOKTllWEST 

number,  had  regained  Upj^er  Sandusky.  Then  it  was 
discovered  that  Colonel  Crawford  was  missing.  Tiie 
command  having  devolved  on  Williamson,  that  oflBcer 
succeeded  in  organizing  the  retreat.  On  the  Gth  a 
stand  was  made  in  the  present  Whitestone  township  of 
Crawford  County,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  pelting  rain- 
storm an  attack  of  the  savages  was  repelled  ;  and  on 
the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Cresline  the  Indians 
ceased  the  pursuit.  On  the  17th  of  June  the  force 
reached  the  Mingo  Bottom  on  the  Ohio,  whence  they 
had  set  out  with  such  high  hopes  twenty-three  days 
before. 

At  the  l)eginning  of  the  retreat,  Colonel  Crawford 
having  missed  his  son  John,  his  son-in-law  Major 
Harrison,  and  his  nephews  Major  Rose  and  William 
Crawford,  halted  to  wait  until  they  should  come  up. 
The  army  having  passed  without  them,  his  wearied 
horse  was  unequal  to  the  task  of  overtaking  the  fugi- 
tives, and  in  company  with  Dr.  Knight  and  others  he 
pushed  on.  The  next  day  they  met  Captain  Josh  Biggs 
and  Lieutenant  Ashlev,  with  whom  they  made  camp ; 
but  on  the  11th  of  June  Crawford  and  Knight  were 
captured  by  a  band  of  Delawares,  Biggs  and  Ashley 
making  their  escape  only  to  be  killed  the  next  day. 
Taken  to  the  near-by  camp  of  the  savages,  they  foun<l 
there  nine  prisoners.  The  two  officers  were  handed 
over  to  the  Delaware  chiefs,  Captain  Pipe  and  Wingen- 
nud.  Knio'ht  was  reserved  for  the  torture-fire  of  a  nei^-h- 
boring  town,  but  made  an  almost  miraculous  escape. 
For  Crawford  a  stake  fifteen  feet  high  was  driven 
into  the  ground,  and  about  it  a  fire  of  hickory  wood 
was  laid  in  a  circle  some  six  yards  from  tiie  post.  By 
way  of  preparation    he  remaining  prisoners  were  sent 

off  to  be  tomahawked  by  the  squaws  and  small  boys. 
s  273 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER   THREE    FLAGS 

Then  Colonel  Crawford  was  stripped  naked,  and  the 
savages  beat  him  with  sticks.  Next  his  tormentors  fast- 
ened him  to  the  stake  by  a  short  rope,  and  began  to 
fire  powder  into  his  bruised  body.  From  the  cordon 
of  flames  squaws  snatched  coals  and  hot  ashes  to  throw 
at  him,  until,  in  his  agony,  he  walked  round  and  round 
the  stake  on  a  pathway  of  fire. 

Among  the  spectators  stood  Simon  Girty,  who  had 
often  been  a  guest  at  Crawford's  hospitable  table  on 
the  Ohio.  Crawford  begged  him  to  shoot  and  end  the 
terrible  agony ;  but  the  renegade  made  taunting  answer, 
"  I  ho.ve  no  gun."  For  three  hours  the  torture  continued. 
Then  the  brave  man,  the  friend  and  companion  of  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  American  armies,  fell  on  his 
face ;  an  Indian  quickly  rushed  in  and  scalped  him,  and 
a  squaw  threw  burning  coals  on  his  mutilated  head. 
Stung  into  life  again,  he  once  more  arose  and  started 
around  the  deadly  post.  But  his  end  was  at  hand. 
The  exhausted  body  dropped  into  the  flames. 

De  Peyster  lamented  that  the  murder  of  the  Mora- 
vians, coming  at  a  time  when  the  Indians  were  almost 
weaned  from  cruelties,  "  had  awakened  their  old  custom 
of  putting  prisoners  to  the  most  severe  tortures;"  yet 
he  looked  upon  the  torture  of  Crawford  and  the  mas- 
sacre of  prisoners  as  retaliation  on  nearly  the  same 
body  of  troops  that  perpetrated  the  slaughter  of  the 
Christian  Indians,  and  that  had  similar  intentions  upon 
Sandusky.'  Haldimand,  deeply  shocked  by  the  report 
De  Peyster  sent  of  the  torture  of  Crawford,  had  "  not  a 
doubt  that  every  possible  argument  was  used  to  prevent 
that  unhappy  event,  and  that  it  alone  proceeded  from 

^  Haldimand  Papers.    De  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  June  23  and  August 

18, 1782, 

274 


THE    WAR    IN    THE    NORTHWFST 

the  raassacre  of  the  Moravian  Indians,  a  circunistiince 
that  will  not  extenuate  the  guilt  in  the  eyes  of  Con- 
gress. When  you  see  a  tit  occasion,  express  in  the 
proper  terms  the  concern  I  feel  ac  their  having  fol- 
lowed so  base  an  example,  and  the  abhorrence  I  have 
had  throughout  the  war  at  acts  of  cruelty,  which,  until 
this  instance,  they  Lave  so  humanely  avoided."  The 
correspondence  between  Haldimand  and  De  Peyster 
shows  that  these  officers  of  the  king  were  sincerely  im- 
pressed by  the  twin  horrors  that  marked  the  last  year 
of  the  Revolution  in  the  ]S'orthwest:  and  thev  took 
pains  to  put  their  ideas  into  orders  directed  to  the 
Indians. 

Before  the  middle  of  June  news  came  to  Detroit  that 
peace  was  likely  to  follow  the  cessation  of  arms  which 
had  taken  place.  On  August  15th  De  Peyster  de- 
spatched an  express  to  Captain  Caldwell  and  to  Brant 
and  McKee,  operating  on  the  Ohio,  ordering  them  to 
cease  from  offensive  work,  although  news  bad  come 
that  another  expedition  was  fitting  out  at  Fort  ^Icln- 
tosh  and  at  Wheeling,  "  under  the  command  of  the 
blood-thirsty  Colonel  Williamson,  who  so  much  distin- 
guished himself  in  tLe  massacre  of  the  Christian  Ind- 
ians." The  messenger,  however,  was  too  late  to  reach 
Captain  Caldwell.  On  August  15th  that  officer,  with 
thirty  picked  Rangers  and  about  two  hundred  Lake 
Indians,  besides  some  Delawares  and  Shawanese,  made 
an  unsuccessful  attack  on  Bryan's  station,  in  Kentucky, 
ending  in  the  battle  of  Blue  Licks,  at  wiiicli  ill-advised 
encounter  Clark's  county  lieutenant  of  the  Illinois,  Colo- 
nel John  Todd,  and  seventy  of  his  command  were 
killed,  v/ith  a  loss  to  their  enemy  of  a  single  Ranger 
and  six  Indians! 

The  terrible  slaughter  of  Blue  Licks  (occasioned  by 

275 


TUE    NOUTIIWKST    UXDKll    TllUEi:    FLAOS 

!^r;ijor  Hugh  McGiirry  usurping  leadership  in  spite  of 
Boone's  advice  to  await  reinrorcements),  brought  Clark 
once  more  to  the  command  ;  and  on  Xovember  10th  his 
mounted  riilemen,  a  thousand  and  fifty  strong,  isLruck 
the  Miami  towns,  burning  crops,  capturing  prisoners, 
recapturing  whites,  and  destroying  the  establishments 
of  the  British  traders.  With  this  attack  the  war  of  the 
Revolution  ended  in  the  Northwest.' 


'  llaUUmand  Papers.  De  Peyster  to  McKee,  August  6,  1782.  De 
PeystcT  to  Brigadier-general  Powell,  August  27ili. 

For  an  account  of  the  battle  of  Blue  Licks,  see  Roosevelt's  Win- 
ning of  the  West,  vol.  ii.,  p.  207.  i\Ir.  Roosevelt  there  gives  McKee's 
and  Caldwell's  reports,  and  corrects  several  errors  in  accepted  ac- 
counts. 

In  a  suggestive  paper  prepared  for  the  Wisconsin  Historical  So- 
ciety, and  printed  in  the  MicMcjan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Iieportf<, 
vol.  iii.,  the  late  Judge  Charles  1.  Walker,  of  Detroit,  was  the  fir<t 
one  to  call  the  attention  of  historians  to  the  valuable  documents 
at  Quebec,  as  sources  of  Northwestern  history  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary period  ;  he  made  as  careful  stud^  of  thei-e  documents  as 
cir'^vinistances  w^ould  permit,  and  tnis  led  to  the  publication  of  con- 
siderable portions  of  the  Bouquet  and  Haluimand  Papers  by  the 
Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Society.  Judge  Walker  made  a 
valuable  collection  of  publications  relating  to  the  Northwest,  and 
when  failing  eyesight  forced  him  to  give  up  his  own  studies,  he 
generously  placed  his  collection  in  the  Detroit  public  library.  Dr. 
W.  J.  I^ole's  chapter  on  "The  West"  from  1763  to  1783,  in  vol- 
ume vi.  of  the  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,  and  An- 
drew McFarland  Davis's  chapter  on  "The  Indians  and  the  Border 
Warfare  of  the  Revolution"  in  the  same  volume,  are  valuable 
not  alone  in  themselves,  but  also  for  their  references  to  other  writ- 
ings. 

Of  all  writers  on  Western  history,  the  most  untiring  searcher  for 
truth  amid  the  multitude  of  legends  and  traditions  was  Mr.  Con- 
sul Willshire  Butterfield,  who  was  born  in  Oswego  County,  New 
York,  in  1824,  and  who  for  fifty  years  pursued  his  inquiries  into 
the  history  of  the  Ohio  valley.  He  died  in  South  Omaha,  Nebras- 
ka, in  October,  1899.  His  biography  of  George  Rogers  Clark  is  yet 
to  appear. 

276 


THE    WAR    IN    TlIK    XORXriWEST 

The  war  between  England  and  America  was  indeed 
ended;  but  for  the  Northwest  the  peace  that  had  come 
to  the  Atlantic  coast  was  lono^  vears  in  the  future. 
The  Kevolution  had  but  rolled  up  the  curtain  on  the 
tragedy  that  was  to  end  only  with  the  treaty  of  Ghent, 
then  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  distant.  De 
Peyster,  looking  the  situation  squarely  in  the  face, 
wrote  to  Haldiraand :  '*  I  have  a  verv  difficult  card  to 
play  at  this  post  and  its  dependencies,  which  differs 
widely  from  the  situation  of  affairs  at  Michilimacki- 
nac,  Niagara,  and  others  in  the  upper  district  of  Can- 
ada. It  is  evident  that  the  back  settlers  will  con- 
tinue to  make  war  upon  the  Shawanese,  Delawares, 
and  Wyandots,  even  after  a  truce  shall  be  agreed 
to  betwixt  Great  Britain  and  her  revolted  colonies. 
In  which  case,  while  we  continue  to  support  the  Ind- 
ians with  troops  (which  they  are  calling  aloud  for), 
or  only  with  arms,  ammunition,  and  necessaries,  we 
shall  incur  the  odium  of  encouraging  incursions  into 
the  back  settlements — for  it  is  evident  that  when  the 
Indians  are  on  foot,  occvasioned  by  the  constant  alarms 
they  receive  from  the  enemies  entering  their  country, 
they  will  occasionally  enter  the  settlements,  and  bring 
off  prisoners  and  scalps — so  that  while  in  alliance  with 
a  people  we  are  bound  to  support,  a  defensive  war  will, 
in  spite  of  human  prudence,  almost  always  terminate 
in  an  offensive  one." 

The  war  was  over.  Peace  meant  liberation  for  the 
captives.  At  Detroit  the  doors  of  "  Yankee  Hall,"  the 
Libby  Prison  of  the  Northwest,  were  opened,  and  as 
speedily  as  possible  De  Peyster  sent  the  captives  to  the 
lower  countrv.  Not  all  of  them  wished  to  leave.  There 
were  Germans  who  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to 
the  king,  and  who  were  settled  with  their  families  near 

277 


THK    NOKTIIWKST    UNDKU    TIIKHK    KI.ACS 

J)etroit  or  on  die  present  Belle  Isle;  there  wore  also 
women  whose  children  were  with  the  Indians -Rachels 
still  to  be  comforted  ;  and  there  were  orphans  who  knew 
not  their  parents.  The  women  and  children  De  Peyster 
*'  fixed  in  decent  houses,  where  they  will  be  taken  care 
of  without  bein<^  of  the  least  expense  to  nrovernment,'" 
and  he  did  all  that  lay  in  his  power  to  accommodate  all 
matters. 

But  there  was  one  door  that  could  not  be  opened. 
In  the  cellar  of  the  council-house  was  a  room  set  apart 
for  the  deposit'  of  the  scalps  brought  to  Detroit  by 
the  Indians  when  they  came  to  claim  provisions  and 
clothing,  guns  and  knives,  powder  and  lead,  and,  above 
all,  rum.  For  the  moment  the  forests  had  echoed  the 
shrieks  of  the  victims  —  women  rushing  to  death  in 
defence  of  their  children,  men  struck  down  at  the  very 
gates  of  their  log  forts,  or  shot  in  the  fiehls  w^hile  at 
work,  innocent  chihlren  playing  about  the  doorstep  of 
the  cabin  builded  in  the  wilderness  that  they  might 
have  a  home.  Their  bones  whitened  in  the  forest;  their 
scalps  rotted  in  the  council -house;  their  only  memorial 
was  the  grandfather's  tale  told  about  the  fireside  long 
years  afterwards,  when  the  frontier  had  been  pushed  far 
north  of  the  Ohio  and  the  log-cabin  had  given  place  to 
the  secure  farm-house  set  amid  smiling  fields.  Let  it  be 
said  in  honor  to  the  Americans  that,  whatever  cruelties 
they  may  have  perpetrated  on  the  Indians,  their  souls 
revolted  from  employing  savages  to  make  war  on  white 
people. 


'  ILtldimand  Papers.   De  Peyster  to  Powell,  August  27,  1783. 

■^  See  also  the  chapter  on  the  Revolutionary  War  in  Silas  Farmer's 
History  of  Detroit  and  Michigan,  a  veritable  storehouse  of  facts  gath- 
ered during  years  of  diligent  research. 

278 


CHAPTER  VIII 
PEACE  THAT  PROVES  NO  PEACE 

"My  lords,"  piteously  cried  Lord  Chatliam,  tottorin*^ 
on  the  very  brink  of  the  grave — ^'my  lords,  his  Majesty 
succeeded  to  an  empire  as  great  in  extent  as  its  repu- 
tation was  unsullied.  Shall  we  tarnish  the  lustre  of 
this  nation  by  an  ignominious  surrender  of  its  rights  and 
fairest  possessions  T"  With  his  latest  breath  the  great 
statesman  uttered  his  almost  incoherent  lamentation  over 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  impending  doom  of  England 
— the  independence  of  those  very  colonies  he  himself  had 
taught  how  to  tight,  and  had  encouraged  to  revT)lt  by 
his  own  ringing  words  of  freedom.  Chatham  had  been 
in  his  ijcrave  three  vears  and  a  half  before  the  surrender 
of  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown  made  England  understand 
that  the  inevitable  day  of  separation  was  at  hand  ;  but 
for  a  year  longer  still  she  fought  in  the  cabinet  to  post- 
pone that  acknowledgment  of  independence  which  suc- 
cessive defeats  in  the  field  had  forced  upon  her.' 

The  treaty  of  17H3,  so  humiliating  to  France,  had 
prepared  that  nation  for  the  alliance  with  the  colonies 
on  which  the  success  of  the  Revolution  depended ;  and 
the  hope  of  ousting  England  from  her  possession  of 

'  Chatham's  last  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords  was  delivered  April 
7,  1778;  he  died  four  days  later.  Yorktown  was  surrendered  October 
^M.  1781,  and  the  preliminary  articles  of  peace  were  signed  November 
30,  1782. 

279 


TIIK    NORTHWEST    UNDER    TIIKKK    FLAGS 

Gll)raltar  was  the  one  tliinn^  tliat  l)rv)ni;lit  Sj)ain  into  the 
contest.  From  tho  very  day  that  New  France  disap- 
peared from  the  map  of  America  th(^  French  minister 
Choiseul  had  pursued  the  policy  of  encouraging^  the 
colonies  to  revolt  and  to  form  an  independent  nation, 
by  which  means  he  hoped  and  expected  to  curb  and 
restrain  England's  overmastering  power  on  the  seas. 
Louis  XVL,  cominn;  to  tlie  throne  at  the  verv  time 
when  the  port  of  Boston  was  closed  by  British  orders, 
chose  to  forget  that  the  American  colonists  were  re- 
volting at  the  divine  right  of  kings,  and  in  his  eager- 
ness to  punish  the  hereditary  entMny  of  France  and  to 
curb  the  commercial  supremacy  of  England,  he  was  ready 
to  furnish  the  fleets,  the  soldiers,  and  the  money  needed 
to  insure  the  success  of  the  new  nation.  When  it  came 
to  the  peace  negotiations,  however,  the  conflicting  in- 
terests of  Engh'md  and  France  and  Spain  all  had  to  be 
considered  before  the  United  States  could  take  a  posi- 
tion among  the  nations  of  the  world.* 

Throughout  the  Revolution,  Franklin,  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  United  States,  had  occupied  a  position 
of  first  importance  at  Paris,  where  he  had  acted  not 
only  as  diplomatic  agent,  but  had  also  negotiated  loans 
to  the  amount  of  51,000,000  francs,  had  disbursed  the 
funds  so  obtained,  and  had  directed  the  little  navy  oper- 
ating in  European  waters.    After  the  evacuation  of  Bos- 

'  For  a  discussion  of  motives  see  the  introduction  to  Wharton's 
Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Corre-yjondence  af  tlie  United  States.  Dr. 
Wharton's  introduction  is  especially  valuable  for  the  light  it  throws 
on  the  various  actors  in  the  diplomacy  of  the  Revolution.  John  Jay's 
article  on  the  peace  negotiations,  in  vol,  vii.  of  the  Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America,  shows  the  various  twistin.i^s  and  turnings 
involved  in  the  prolonged  discussions,  and  especially  illustrates  tli<' 
reluctance  with  which  England  came  to  the  acknowledgment  of  inde- 
pendence. 

280 


PHACE    THAT    TIIOVKS    No    PEATK 

ton  and  tlu;  snrn»n(l(M'  of  Hurc^oyno  at  Sarntoga  in  1778 
liad  proved  tlio  ability  of  the  (M)l(nusts  tocojx^  with  Kiij^- 
land,  an  open  alliance}  with  France  also  netrotinted  by 
Franklin,  «^^ave  to  this  country  a  national  existence,  at 
least  so  far  as  that  nation  was  concerned.  Early  in 
177l>,  wiien  the  h<>p(^  of  peace  seemed  not  unr«  Jisonable, 
Congress  made  John  Adams  a  commissioner  o  negoti- 
ate a  peace  ;  jnid  afterwards,  at  the  instance  o'  France, 
associated  with  him  others,  of  whom  Franklin  and  Jay 
bore  an  active  part  in  the  actual  negotiations.  It  is  not 
necessary  here  to  go  into  the  intricate?  and  delicate  sub- 
ject of  the  prolonged  negotiations  that  led  up  to  the 
treaty  of  1783;  but  for  present  purposes  it  is  sutficient 
to  outline  the  general  attitude  of  the  four  nations  in 
interest. 

Congress  naturally  took  a  large  view  of  the  rights 
and  the  boundaries  which  should  accrue  to  the  United 
States  by  virtue  of  having  prosecuted  a  successful  war 
against  England.  After  the  recognition  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States,  which  was  always  of 
first  consideration,  Congress  stipulated  for  a  participa- 
tion in  the  Newfoundland  fisheries,  for  the  free  naviga- 
tion of  the  Mississippi,  and  for  the  enlarged  boundaries 
of  the  Great  Lakes  on  the  north  and  the  Mississippi  on 
the  west.  These  demands  w^ere  afterwards  modified  both 
in  terms,  and  especially  by  the  instruction  that  the 
American  commissioners  ^vere  not  to  take  action  with- 
out consulting  France,  a  restriction  always  embarrassing 
and  w^ell  calculated  to  defeat  all  efforts  at  successful 
negotiation  had  the  commissioners  adhered  to  it. 

France,  willing  to  humiliate  England,  was  quite  un- 
willing to  give  to  the  new  nation  the  room  and  the 
opportunity  to  grow;  and  in  pursuit  of  this  policy  the 
French  minister  Vergennes  set  on  foot  an  intrigue  with 

281 


TIIK    NORTinVEST     L'NDEK    TIIREP:    I  LAGS 

England  to  keep  the  United  States  out  of  the  fisheries 
and  to  confine  the  boundaries  to  the  Ohio,  if  not  to  the 
Alleghanies,  leaving  to  England  all  of  Canada  as  enlarged 
under  the  Quebec  act  of  1774.  It  was  Yergennes's  oi)- 
ject  to  prolong  negotiations  until  the  purposes  of  Spain 
had  been  accomplished ;  for  he  had  agreed,  as  the  price 
of  Spain's  help  against  England,  first  to  make  no  peace 
that  did  not  involve  the  surrender  of  Gibraltar;  and, 
secondly,  to  have  Spain  free  to  exact  from  the  United 
States  a  renunciation  of  the  navigation  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  of  the  entire  Northwest  from  the  St.  Law- 
rence to  the  Alleghanies. 

Spain,  in  order  to  protect  her  interests  in  the  Philip- 
pines and  in  the  hope  of  recovering  the  key  to  the 
Mediterranean,  gave  to  France  for  the  use  of  the  United 
States  a  million  francs,  by  way  of  encouraging  the  colo- 
nies in  their  struggle  against  England ;  but  when  the 
colonies  coalesced  into  a  nation,  Spain  immediately 
began  to  consider  the  danger  to  her  own  North  Ameri- 
can possessions  that  would  result  from  building  up  a 
strong  government  east  of  the  Mississippi.  Then,  hav- 
ing been  drawn  into  the  war  by  France,  Spain  deter- 
mined to  seize  the  opportunity  to  recover  the  ground  she 
had  lost  in  the  Seven  Years'  "War  and  again  to  become 
a  nation  of  the  first  class.  Grudgingly  she  gave  inef- 
fective aid  to  the  United  States,  expecting  at  the  end 
to  profit  at  their  expense. 

In  Prussia  Frederick  the  Great  was  willing  to  aid 
America  up  to  the  point  of  getting  into  a  war  with 
England ;  in  Kussia  Catharine  II.  welcomed  the  war  as 
an  opportunity  for  her  to  build  up  a  neutral  commerce, 
but  she  had  no  sympathy  with  the  object  of  the  Ameri- 
cans to  form  a  new  nation;  and  the  same  state  of  affairs 
that  existed  in  Russia  prevailed  also  in  the  Netherlands. 

282 


J-»IIN    ADAMS 


PEACE  THAT  PROVES  NO  PEACE 

The  surrender  at  Yorktown  having  proved  to  Eng- 
land the  futilitv  of  continuinor  the  struorcrle  witli  the 
United  States,  the  House  of  Commons,  on  March  4, 
1782,  voted  to  consider  as  enemies  to  the  king  anu 
country  those  who  should  attempt  the  further  prosecu- 
tion of  the  war  with  America;  and  within  a  fortnight 
thereafter  Lord  North  gave  way  to  Rockingham,  whose 
cabinet  was  made  up  largely  of  the  friends  of  America, 
including  Fox  and  Burke.  The  peace  negotiations,  how- 
ever, were  conducted  mainlv  bv  Lord  Shelburne,  first 
as  the  colonial  secretary  and  afterwards  as  the  leader  of 
the  ministry.  Without  attempting  too  close  an  analy- 
sis of  the  complex  character  of  Shelburne,  it  is  enough 
to  say  that  after  long  dodging  the  humiliating  question 
of  acknowledging  the  independence  of  the  United  States 
as  the  preliminary  step  to  a  treaty,  he  was  slowly  but 
surely  educated  into  a  condition  of  high  esteem  for  the 
character  and  abilities  of  the  American  commissioners ; 
and  in  the  end  he  w^as  persuaded  that  it  was  for  the  best 
interests  of  England  herself  to  give  to  the  new  nation 
such  rights  and  boundaries  as  would  insure  the  develop- 
ment of  a  prosperous  nation  with  which  Great  Britain 
might  trade  on  fair  terms.  He  was  led  to  these  con- 
clusions not  only  by  the  straightforward  dealings  of  Jay 
and  Adams  and  Franklin,  but  also  by  the  duplicity  of 
Vergennes. 

Of  the  three  American  peace  commissioners,  Franklin 
was  seventy  years  old  when,  in  1776,  he  was  elected 
commissioner  to  France,  and  he  w^as  then  moved  to 
speak  of  himself  as  a  remnant — a  fag-end.  Yet  by  his 
profound  knowledge,  his  wide  experience  at  court,  and 
his  adroit  address,  he  had  succeeded  in  performing  ser- 
vices such  as  no  other  man  in  America  could  have  ren- 
dered.    For  the  young  monarch  of  France  he  felt  almost 

283 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

a  paternal  regard ;  and  by  appealing  to  the  chivalrous 
instincts  of  both  king  and  queen  he  had  weH  supple- 
mented his  ap[)eals  to  the  lower  motives  of  advantage 
and  revenge  entertained  by  Yergennes.  He  it  was  who 
first  undertook  to  deal  separately  and  secretly  with  Shel- 
burne,  proposing  to  give  compensation  to  the  Tories  in 
returi  for  the  cession  of  all  of  Canada ;  but  as  negotia- 
tions progressed  he  was  inclined  to  lay  much  stress  on 
the  instruction  to  consult  France,  and  it  was  with  genu- 
ine reluctance  that  he  yielded  to  his  colleagues  when 
they  concluded  that  the  time  had  come  to  accommodate 
matters  first  with  England.  That  he  did  so  conclude 
was  not  his  least  service  to  his  country. 

Utterly  unlike  Franklin  was  John  Adams,  a  most 
zealous  patriot,  in  \vhom  tact  and  judgment  were  often 
wanting.  Lacking  in  tiie  spirit  of  accommodation, 
he  never  could  have  accomplished  all  that  Franklin 
secured  ;  and  yet  his  persistency  and  his  undoubted 
genius  for  affairs  political  enabled  him  to  obtain  much. 
It  was  Adams's  rough  aggressiveness  that  caused  the 
French  minister  Luzerne  to  have  Congress  associate 
with  him  as  peace  commissioners  Franklin,  Jay,  Lau- 
rens, and  Thomas  Jefferson — a  division  of  responsibility 
entirely  agreeable  to  Adams.  While  Franklin  and  Jay 
were  spending  the  better  part  of  the  year  1782  in  nego- 
tiations with  Oswald,  the  British  representative,  Adams 
successfully  negotiated  a  treaty  with  Holland ;  and. 
fresh  from  this  diplomatic  triumph  in  October,  he  ar- 
rived in  Paris  to  give  to  Jay  the  full  support  of  his  ex- 
perience and  decision  of  character.  Friendly  to  France, 
indeed,  he  had  no  particular  affinity  for  that  country ; 
hence  it  violated  no  feelings  on  Adams's  part  to  come 
to  terms  with  England  while  Yergennes  was  resting 
in  fancied  security  that  he  had  delayed   indefinitely 

iJ  V  4.' 

284 


LO UL)   S?IlELliLll^E 


I 


PEACE    TIJAT    PROVES    NO    PEACE 

the   negotiations   lie  professed  himself  anxious  to  ex- 
pedite. 

From  April  0  to  June  23, 1782,  Franklin  and  Oswald, 
the  British  commissioner,  were  trying  to  arrive  at  some 
satisfactory  basis  of  negotiations.  Jefferson  was  in 
America;  Laurens  was  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  of  Lon- 
don; Adams  was  bus;  in  Ilor.and.  Satisfied  tliat  Jav 
was  accomplishing  nothing  in  Spain,  Franklin  called  to 
his  aid  the  young  New  York  gentleman  who,  although 
only  in  his  thirt\"-seventh  year,  had  already  achieved  no- 
table success  as  a  member  of  Congress  and  as  the  chief- 
justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  his  native  State.  Born  of 
a  Huguenot  family,  distinguished  alike  for  social  graces 
and  for  legal  attainments,  Jay  was  at  once  easy  of  ap- 
proach, familiar  with  the  usages  of  society,  and  strenuous 
in  his  Americanism.  From  his  coming  to  Paris,  late  in 
June,  till  the  signing  of  the  preliminary  articles  of  peace 
on  the  30th  of  November,  Jay  pulled  the  laboring  oar 
in  all  the  negotiations.  He  it  was  who  dared  to  disre- 
D^ard  the  instruction  of  Cono^ress  to  deal  onlv  with  the 
consent  of  France,  who  insisted  on  making  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  independence  a  prerequisite  to  negotia- 
tions, and  who  stood  out  for  the  widest  possible  bounda- 
ries and  the  most  ample  rights  to  the  fisheries  and  the 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  He  persuaded  Shelburne 
that  it  was  for  the  interest  of  England  to  make  a  treat}^ 
that  would  be  not  only  just  but  also  conciliatory ;  and 
all  this  he  accomplished  with  the  hearty  concurrence  of 
Adams,  who  had  but  a  month's  part  in  the  negotiations, 
and  of  Franklin,  whose  attachment  to  and  confidence  in 
Jav  were  shown  afterwards  by  the  fact  that  Franklin 
made  Jay  his  executor.' 

'  "Our  worthy  friend,  Mr.  Jay,  returns  to  his  country  like  a  bee  to 

'285 


TllK    NORTHWEST    UNDKIl    TIIKKK    KLA(iS 

The  EurojK'iiM  IVar  of  wido  American  boundjiries  was 
entirely  natural  Tlie  depopiilaiion  of  Europe,  the  loss 
of  the  fur- trade,  the  diversion  of  the  product  of  the 
mines  of  New  Mexico,  and  tlie  use  of  the  fisheries  as  a 
commercial  and  naval  train in<^-school,  all  were  reasons 
impelling  Franct  and  Spain  to  set  the  Alleghanies  as 
the  barrier  which  the  too-enterprising  Americans  should 
not  be  allowed  to  cross ;  and  in  order  to  accomplish 
their  pui'pose,  these  two  nations  did  not  scruple  secretly 
to  seek  the  participation  of  England.  Employing  as  a 
medium  of  communication  Vaughan,  an  intimate  friend 
of  Shelburne,  J{>y  despatched  to  London  the  draft  of  a 
treaty  comprismg  boundaries,  the  navigation  of  the  ^Fis- 
sissii)pi,  and  the  fisheries.  England  was  anxious  to  keep 
the  back  countrv  as  a  means  of  settling:  the  loyalists, 
or  at  least  of  compensating  them  for  their  losses  by  the 
sale  of  these  lands;  but  on  this  point  Shelburne  was  not 
strenuous.  The  two  points  on  which  he  was  decided 
were  the  payment  of  debts  owed  to  British  merchants 
by  Americans,  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  Tories  in 
their  privileges  and  properties.  On  the  first  point  there 
was  no  dispute ;  on  the  second,  the  commissioners  were 
powerless  to  do  more  than  to  agree  that  Congress  would 
recommend  such  action  to  the  several  States,  whicii 
alone  had  the  jurisdiction  over  matters  of  internal 
policy. 

The  repeated  illnesses  of  Dr.  Franklin  caused  the  bur 
den  of  the  peace  arrangements  to  fall  on  the  shouldei's  of 
his  younger  and  more  vigorous  colleague,  John  Jay,  and 
although  Oswald  still  regarded  Franklin  as  the  chief  of 
the  negotiators,  he  found  that  Jay's  clear-cut  and  def- 

his  hive,  with  both  legs  loaded  with  merit  and  honor." — Adams  to 
Barclay,  quoted  in  George  Pellew's  John  Jay,  American  Statesmen 
Series,  p.  228. 

286 


PEACK  THAT  TROVKS  NO  TKAC'E 

inite  (lomands  must  be  mot,  because  Fnmklin  was  detor- 
inined  to  su[>j)()i't  his  colleague  at  every  point.  Jay's 
experience  in  Spain  had  aroused  a  natural  resentment 
toN^'a  ' ^  that  nation;  and  at  the  same  time  he  had  no 
such  frien(*lv  feelin-c  for  France  as  had  been  enfjendered 
in  P^rankliii  bv  years  of  successful  nef!:otiation  with  Ver- 
fi^ennes,  and  by  that  ^rubtle  flattery  which  the  p(M)j)le  of 
France  willingly  ace  '"ded  to  the  distinguished  scientific 
attainments,  the  profound  knowledge,  and  the  affable 
manners  of  the  representative  of  the  United  States.' 
Towards  England  Jay's  feelings  we  e  mixed.  He  was 
in  sympathy  with  the  best  politi  ^  thought  of  that 
country,  but  was  not  in  sympathy  >  the  government. 
Oswald  found  him  polite,  easy,  well  informed,  but  de- 
cidedly independent ;  and  was  disappointed  in  meeting 
such  decided  ideas  so  lirml}"  held.  In  the  end,  how- 
ever, the  British  negotiator  came  under  Jay's  influence, 
and  became  an  earnest  advocate  with  fehelburne  and 
Townshend  of  Jay's  views. 

Of  all  the  matters  comprised  in  the  peace  treaty,  there 
is  no  more  obscure  subject  than  that  of  the  Northwest 
boundaries ;  and  in  the  printed  correspondence  almost 
nothing  is  to  be  found  to  throw  light  on  that  perplexing 
(juestion.  In  the  manuscript  correspondence  that  passed 
between  Oswald  and  his  principals,  however,  the  matter 
is  elucidated.'  When  the  treaty  of  1763  was  proposed 
as  a  basis  of  negotiation,  Jay  maintained  that  Great 

'  For  a  brilliant  exposition  of  Franklin's  position  in  Paris,  see  Pro- 
fessor George  W.  Green's  article  on  "  The  Diplomacy  of  the  Revolu- 
tion," in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  vol,  xv.,  p.  576.  Professor  Green  does 
scant  justice  to  Adams,  and  makes  alm.ost  no  mention  of  Jay,  a  fact 
which  indicates  the  lack  of  available  information  on  this  subject 
in  1865. 

'^  This  correspondence,  known  as  the  Landsdowne  Papers,  is  in  the 
Library  of  Congress  and  in  the  State  Department. 

287 


TIM':    NOIiTIIWKST    UNDKU    TI111I:H    I'LAGS 

Britain  had  treated  France  with  too  little  consideration 
at  that  time;  and  on  Oswald's  reply  that  it  ill  became 
an  American  to  object  to  tlie  enl'oi'ced  surrender  of 
Canacki,  by  means  of  which  cession  the  American  fron- 
tiers  were  protected  from  incursions  of  savages  insti- 
^^^ated  by  France,  Jay  retorted  that  the  colonies  were 
then  a  part  of  the  British  domain,  and  were  therefore 
to  be  protected  in  common  with  other  portions  of  the 
realm.  What  Jay  now  proposed  was  the  cession  of  all 
that  portion  of  Canada  newly  included  in  the  Quebec 
act  of  177-ir— that  is,  all  the  territory  west  of  the  Ottawa 
River  and  south  of  the  lands  of  tiie  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany, and  his  argument  was  easy  to  be  comprehended. 
The  back  lands,  he  said,  were  already  occupied  in  part 
by  the  Americans,  who  were  pushing  over  the  moun- 
tains into  that  fertile  territory ;  and  for  England  to 
retain  the  Ohio  country  would  simply  be  to  invite 
trouble.  xMoreover,  he  pointed  out  a  way  in  which  Eng- 
land, while  giving  up  the  territory,  could  command  its 
trade.  Oswald  professed  anxiety  over  the  honorable 
withdrawal  of  the  British  garrisons  at  New  York  and 
Charleston :  let  England  use  these  troops  to  conquer 
the  Spanish  post  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi ;  tiie 
United  States  would  much  prefer  England  to  France  as 
a  neighbor ;  then  with  the  free  navigation  of  the  great 
river,  Great  Britain  would  be  able  to  control  the  two 
outlets  of  the  back  lands — New  Orleans  and  Quebec. 
This  reasoning  seemed  good  to  Oswald,  for  he  was  con- 
vinced that  the  plan  of  using  the  Ohio  lands  to  furnish 
a  fund  to  make  good  the  losses  of  British  loyalists  and 
to  pay  for  American  property  wantonly  destroyed  by 
the  British  was  past  hoping  for.  So  he  urged  Jay's 
reasoning  on  his  government ;  and  in  the  (learth  of 
authentic   maps   and   other  information   in  regard  to 

288 


HEMIV   LALUENS 


rKACK    THAT    IMiOVES    NO    PEACE 

the  Oliio,  the  widi^  boundaries  of  the  Northwest  were 
a<3^ree(l  to.' 

The  American  coiimiissionersotrered  a  choice  between 
the  lino  passing  through  the  middle  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
or  the  forty-liftli  degree  of  latiUi<lo,  which  latter  line 
would  have  left  in  Canada  Lake  Sup<M'ior,  Minnesota^ 
antl  the  northern  half  of  Michigan,  while  it  would  have 
given  to  us  the  ])rovince  of  Ontario  and  all  of  Lakes 
Erie  and  Ontario.  Fortunately  for  both  parties,  the 
more  rational  line  w^as  chosen  and  marked  on  MitchelTs 
map  ;  and  on  paper,  at  least,  the  two  nations  divided  the 
navigation  privileges  of  the  great  inland  seas,  and,  with- 
out knowledge  of  the  exact  conditions,  parted  their  re- 
spective territories  along  the  Grand  Portage  from  Lake 
Superior  to  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi.  The  triumph 
of  Ja}^  and  his  colleagues  in  obtaining  these  boundaries 
can  best  be  appreciated  when  it  is  understood  how  per- 
sistently Vergennes,  acting  for  both  France  and  Spain, 
pushed  the  Spanish  claims  not  alone  at  Paris,  but  also 
at  London,  and  even  at  Philadelphia;  and  with  what 
plausibility  he  argued  that  Spain  should  control  the 
Mississippi,  that  the  country  betw^een  the  Alleghanies 
and  the  Ohio  should  be  maintained  as  Indian  territory, 
under  the  control  ot  Spain,  and  that  Canada  should 
reach  south  to  the  Ohio.  Possibly  England  preferred  to 
give  up  to  the  United  States  territory  which  she  might 
hope  to  regain,  rather  than  to  yield  to  France  what  she 
would  have  to  pay  for  by  other  and  more  important  sur- 
renders elsewhere.     Be  that  as  it  may,  the  preliminary 

'  See  Oswald's  letters  of  August  8,  Septomber  2,  and  October  2, 
1782.  Also  the  letters  in  regard  to  Canada  in  vol.  viii.  of  Wharton's 
Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  Revolution,  and  a  very  instructive 
article  on  *'  The  International  Boundary  Line  of  Michigan,"  by  Anna 
May  Soule,  in  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  vol.  xxvi. 
T  289 


THE    NOIlTinVEST    UNDHK    THREE    FLAGS 

treaty  was  agreed  to  on  November  30,  1782,  with  the 
saving  provision  that  the  peace  should  not  become 
effectual  until  England  had  come  to  terms  with  France 
and  Spain. 

There  was  but  one  sentiment  in  regard  to  the  treaty. 
D'Aranda  wrote  from  J\'iris  to  his  master,  the  King  of 
Spain  :  ''  The  federal  republic  is  born  a  pigmy.     A  day 
will  come  when  it  will  be  a  giant,  even  i  colossus,  for- 
midable to  these  countries,     Libertv  of  conscience,  the 
facility  for  establishing      new  popukition  on  immense 
lands,  as  well  as  the  advantage  of  the  new  government, 
will  draw  thither  farmers  and  artisans  from  all  nations. 
In  a  few  years  we  shall  watch  with  grief  the  tyrannical 
existence  of  this  same  colossus."     The  chagrined  Yer- 
gennes  wrote  to  his  secretary  and  companion  in  intrigue, 
Ray  venal,  that  England  had  rather  bought  a  peace  than 
made  one;  to  which  Rayvenal  replied  that  the  treaty 
seemed  to  him  a  dream.     Luzerne  wrote  from  Philadel- 
phia to  Vergennes  that  the  boundary  from  Lake  Supe- 
rior to  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi  had  surpassed  all 
expectation.     It  gave  the  Americans  four  forts  they  had 
found  it  impossible  to  capture.     Lands  neiirer  the  coast 
were  already  beginning  to  depreciate  in  value,  owing  to 
the  new  acquisitions ;  and  that  there  was  a  belief  that 
in  pushing  their  possessions  as  far  as  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods,  the  plenipotentiaries  were  preparing  for  their 
remote  posterity  a  communication    with   the  Pacific. 
Such  words  now  seem  prophecy ;  then  they  were  but 
the  legitimate  deductions  of  statesmen. 

A  characteristic  fate  overtook  the  treaty  in  the  British 
Parliament.  Fox  and  Xorth  having  combined  to  drive 
Shelburne  out  of  power  for  making  such  a  treaty,  the 
new  ministry  sent  Hartley  to  P«ns  to  "  perfect  and  es- 
tablish the  peace,  friendship,  and  good  understanding  so 

290 


PEACE    THAT     rUOVES    NU    I'EACE 

hiippily  commenced  by  the  provisional  articles";  and 
after  intermittent  negotiations  these  same  provisional 
articles  were  adopted  on  September  3,  1783,  as  the  de- 
finitive treaty  between  England  and  America.  In  Con- 
gress the  negotiators  were  praised  lor  tlieir  achievement, 
but  were  blamed  for  not  consulting  France ! 

In  opposing  the  treaty  in  the  House  of  Lords,  Wal- 
singham  had  asserted  tiiat  the  province  of  Canada  had 
been  made  insecure,  the  fur -trade  lost,  several  hun- 
dred million  acres  were  ceded,  and  faith  was  broken 
with  the  Indians;  and  Lord  Townshend  deplored  the 
fact  that  some  one  xi'oni  Canada  luid  not  been  brougijt 
in  to  arrange  the  matter  of  the  boundaries.  There  was 
good  reason  to  believe  that  the  question  of  the  North- 
western boundaries  had  not  been  well  considered  by  the 
British ;  but  tliev  had  made  the  treatv  after  due  con- 
sideration  and  they  were  morally  bound  to  live  uj)  to  it. 

Early  in  the  autumn  of  1782  llaldimand,  having  re- 
ceived orders  from  Shelburne  to  discourage  hostile 
measures  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  and  as  much  as 
possible  to  draw  them  from  the  American  frontiers,  in- 
structed the  commanders  under  him  to  carrv  out  those 
orders ;  but  to  the  Honorable  Thomas  Townshend  he 
wrote  that  the  safety  of  the  province  of  Canada  depend- 
ed on  the  way  in  which  the  Indians  should  be  managed. 
The  savages,  he  said,  had  been  great  sufferers  by  reason 
of  the  \var;  from  ease  and  affluence  the  Mohawks  had 
been  reduced  to  ^^^anderers;  and  the  Indians  generally 
had  so  perpetually  harassed  the  Americans  that  for 
them  nothing  short  of  abandonino^  Eno^land  would  se- 
cure  a  reconciliation  with  the  United  States.  "  Fore- 
seeing the  possibility  of  the  Americans  becoming  an 
independent  powerful  people  and  retaliating  severely 
upon  them,  they  reproach  us  with  their  ruin."     So  long 

291 


THE    NOKTllWKST    UXDKU    TllliEE    FLAGS 

as  tlie  Six  Nations  remained  faitlii'ul,  Oswego,  the  key 
to  Canada,  was  in  security;  but  even  the  neutrahty  of 
those  tril>es  would  cause  the  gravest  apprehension.  On 
the  friendship  of  the  western  Indians  depended  the 
safety  of  the  trade  and  posts  at  Detroit  and  in  tlie 
vicinity;  so  that  the  expense  attending  the  Indian  al- 
hance,  although  enormous,  must  be  borne.  That  was 
no  time  to  retrench.'  And  again,  two  days  later,  Ilaldi- 
mand  urged  u[)on  Townshend  the  absolute  necessity 
that  Niagara  and  Oswego  be  annexed  to  Canada;  evi- 
dentlv  he  had  no  thoutjht  of  the  surrender  of  Detroit 
and  Mackinac.  His  letters,  however,  came  too  kite  to  bo 
effective  in  the  negotiati^^n  of  the  treaty,  but  his  views 
were  enforced  in  spite  of  the  treaty,  as  will  be  seen. 

It  was  small  wonder  that  Ilahlimand  was  anxious  to 
preserve  the  fur-trade  ;  tor  the  traffic  in  peltry  was  then, 
as  it  alw^ays  had  been,  the  life  -  blood  of  Canada.  In 
1765,  two  years  after  the  massacre  at  Mic  imackinac, 
the  first  English  adventurer  started  northward  from 
that  post,  only  to  have  his  canoes  plundered  by  the 
Indians  about  Rainv  Lake ;  nor  was  he  more  successful 
the  next  year;  but  in  HOT  the  traders  penetrated  be- 
yond Lake  Winnipeg,  and,  so  far  as  the  Indians  were 
concerned,  the  battle  was  won.  Competition,  far  from 
being  the  life  of  trade,  became  its  bane,  until  the  Fro- 
bishers  combined  with  the  other  great  Montreal  house 
of  Todd  &  McGill,  and  in  1774  the  new  company  pushed 
its  posts  into  territories  unknown  even  to  the  French. 
At  the  date  of  the  definitive  treaty  there  were  but 
twelve  different  interests  engaged  in  the  northern 
trade,  and  when  the  new"  boundaries  were  made  known 
these  twelve  combined  to  form  the  Northwest  Company, 

'  Haldimand  to  Townshend,  October  23,  1783. 

293 


c 

\      7i 


c 


•K 


PEACE    THAT    rilOVES    NO    PEACE 

in  order  to  guard  against  American  encroachments.  The 
United  States  treaty  commissioners  had  insisted  on 
drawing  the  boundary-line  through  the  Grand  Portage 
of  Lake  Superior,  then  the  only  known  water  communi- 
cation to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  and  hence  the  key  to 
the  rich  fur  country  of  the  north.  To  discover  another 
convenient  passage  wholly  within  British  lines  became 
the  first  object  of  the  monopoly,  and  to  this  end  they 
sent  out  a  strong  exploring  party  under  Umfreville  and 
Venance  St.  Gc  main. 

Even  in  1784  the  annual  business  of  the  Northwest 
Company  amounted  to  £50,000,  as  the  original  cost  of 
furs.  Early  in  May,  ninety  long  canoes,  each  of  four 
tons  burden  and  each  navigated  by  eight  or  ten  men,  set 
out  from  Montreal  bound  for  the  Lake  of  the  Woods. 
On  reaching  Michilimackinac  their  stock  of  provisions 
was  replenished  and  off  they  paddled  for  the  north  ohore 
of  Lake  Superior.  There  the  goods  were  transferred  to 
canoes  carrying  perhaps  a  ton  and  a  half  and  navigated 
by  four  or  five  men  especially  trained  for  the  combined 
work  on  stream  and  portage.  Starting  from  the  Por- 
tage early  in  July,  two  hundred  and  fifty  bush-rangers 
made  their  way  even  to  Lake  Athabasca  and  Great 
Slave  Lake,  and  throughout  the  entire  country  within  a 
thousand  miles  or  more  from  Lake  Superior.  Often 
provisions  would  fail  and  Indians  be  hard  to  come  upon ; 
then  the  tortures  of  hunger  would  bring  men  face  to 
face  with  death,  and  not  ^  .iquently  the  close-follow- 
ing wolves  would  get  .  ,  ;^Apected  prey.^  Such 
dangers  and  such  hazard'  madc)  the  bottle  pass  quickly 
and  the  song  wax  hilarious  when  these  forest-trampers 

'Memorial  of  Benjamin  and  Joseph  Frobisher  to  General  Haldi- 
mand,  October  4,  1784. — Canadian  Archives,  1890,  p.  50.  Also  James 
McGill  to  Henry  Hamilton,  ibid.,  p.  56. 

293 


T11I«:    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

went  into  winter  quarters  and  gathered  about  the  great 
pine  fires  that  defied  the  mercury -freezing  cold  and 
the  high-piled  snow.  Such  were  the  beginnings  of  the 
great  Northwest  Company,  whose  partners,  making 
their  annual  voyage  to  Fort  William,  near  the  Grand 
Portage,  ascended  the  mighty  rivers  in  canoes  freighted 
with  every  luxury  known  to  civilization,  and  equipped 
with  servants  and  cooks  to  serve  banquets  in  the  great 
hall  of  the  council-house,  that  was  hung  with  the  richest 
of  furs  and  the  mightiest  trophies  of  the  chase.  0})u- 
lence  is  a  word  that  seems  to  belong  to  the  Indies,  but 
the  opulence  of  the  Lake  Superior  fur-trade  in  the  closing 
days  of  the  eighteenth  century  can  be  compared  only 
with  the  opulence  of  the  Lake  Superior  copper-trade  in 
the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth.' 

Great  as  was  the  fur-trade  in  the  upper  country,  in 
value  more  than  half  of  the  furs  came  from  countries 
within  the  new  boundaries  of  the  L^nited  States ;  and 
Montreal  had  practically  the  monopoly  of   the  trade 

^  Compare  the  opening  chapters  of  Irving's  Axtorhi.  The  Boston 
and  New  York  owners  of  copper-mines  in  Lake  Superior  are  worthy 
successors  of  the  Frobishers  and  the  McTavishes  of  other  days. 

During  a  visit  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  in  October,  1899,  I  was  enter- 
tained by  Mr.  Clergue,  at  his  home  in  a  blockhouse  built  on  the 
foundations  of  a  simihir  structure  erected  by  the  Nortliwest  Fur  Com- 
pany, on  the  Canadian  side  of  the  rapids.  In  these  closing  days  of 
the  nineteenth  century  Mr.  Clergue  and  the  American  capitalists  whom 
he  represents  are  realizing  the  dreiims  of  the  seventeenth  and  eigii- 
teenth  centuries.  The  trade  with  Cathay  that  eluded  Nicolet  is  now 
maintained  b}'  the  daily  shipments  of  wood-pulp  to  Japan  ;  the  copper 
that  Joliet  was  unable  to  discover  has  at  last  been  found,  and  with  it 
nickel  and  iron  ;  Radisson's  overland  path  to  Hudson  Bay  is  being  tra- 
versed by  the  Algoma  Central  railroad,  now  building  ;  and  the  waters 
of  St.  Mary's  River  are  being  harnessed  to  build  up  a  great  manufact- 
uring centre.  Meanwhile  the  largest  tonnage  known  to  any  w^aterway 
in  the  world  annually  passes  to  and  from  Lakes  Superior  and  Huron. 

394 


PEACE    THAT    PPwOVES    NO    PEACE 

from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi. 
The  Canadians  rightly  judged  that  inasmucli  as  the  fur 
market  was  London  and  China,  the  United  States  would 
not  be  able  to  compete  in  this  trade;  and  this  estimate 
j)roved  true  until,  in  the  person  of  John  Jacob  Astor, 
America  was  to  have  a  merchant  who  could  command 
trade  in  both  London  and  China,  who  could  maintain 
commercial  rivalry  at  Mackinac  even  with  the  North- 
west Company,  and  whose  enterprise  in  the  wilderness 
helped  the  United  States  to  acquire  by  discovery  and 
settlement  the  title  to  the  Oregon  country. 

Haldimand,  as  a  part  of  his  plan  for  keeping  control 
of  the  fur-trade,  had  forbidden  building  or  navigating 
private  vessels  on  the  Great  Lakes  ;  because  he  conceived 
that,  were  the  furs  not  carried  in  king's  vessels,  they 
would  speedily  find  their  w^ay  through  the  United  States 
to  tide -water.  As  may  be  supposed,  this  prohibition 
met  with  vigorous  remonstrance  not  only  from  the 
Northwest  Company,  but  also  from  the  merchants  of 
Detroit,  and  others  who  found  their  business  almost 
ruined  by  lack  of  vessels  and  the  usual  naval  disposition 
to  take  plenty  of  time  to  go  from  place  to  place.  The 
merchants,  however,  got  no  satisfaction  either  from  Hal- 
dimand or  from  his  dual  successors,  General  St.  Leger 
and  Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton.' 

So  soon  as  Sir  Guy  Carleton'  had  announced  to  Gen- 
eral  Washington  that  England  had  concluded  a  peace 
with  France,  Spain,  and  Holland,  Congress  authorized 

*  See  correspondence  in  Ganndian  Archives,  1890,  p.  63  et  seq. 

'  Carleton  to  Washington,  April  6,  1784.  The  documents  relating 
to  the  attempts  to  get  possession  of  the  posts  are  given  in  connection 
with  the  message  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  December  5, 
1793.  There  is  a  Philadelphia  and  a  London  print  of  these  documents. 
See  also  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  vol.  i.,  p.  181. 

295 


TIIK     NOUTIIWHST    UNDER    TIIKEK    l'LA(>S 

the  coramander-in-chief  to  make  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments with  the  British  commanders  for  receivin*:^  the 
j)osts  at  Detroit,  MichiHmackinac,  Erie,  Niagara,  Os- 
wego, Oswegatchie,  Point  au  Fer,  and  Dutchman's 
P(jint,  occupied  by  the  British  and  situated  within  the 
new  boundaries  of  the  United  States.  Thereupon 
Washington  sent  Baron  Steuben  to  Quebec  to  arrange 
for  the  surrender.  When,  on  August  8,  1783,  Steuben 
met  General  Ilaklimand  at  Sorel,  the  British  com- 
mander, with  his  customary  suavity,  made  answer  to 
the  American  demand,  that  his  orders  related  solely  to 
a  cessation  of  hostilities,  and  that  he  had  obeved  them 
to  the  letter,  even  to  the  extent  of  restraining  the  sav- 
ages from  committing  the  least  hostile  act;  but  that 
until  he  received  explicit  orders  to  turn  over  the  posts, 
he  conceived  it  to  be  his  duty  as  a  soldier  to  take  no 
step  in  that  direction.'  Nor  was  Governor  Clinton,  of 
New  York,  more  successful'  when,  during  the  next  year, 
he  endeavored  to  obtain  possession  of  P'ort  Niagara. 
Still  a  third  attempt  was  made  by  Secretary  of  War 
Knox,  who,  in  the  July  of  the  same  year,  sent  to  Quebec 
one  of  the  brightest  and  most  successful  of  the  younger 
officers  of  the  Revolution,  Lieutenant-Colonel  William 
Hull;  but  again  Ilaklimand  pleaded  his  want  of  author- 
ity," and  there  the  army  oificials  dropped  the  matter. 

In  so  far  as  Haldimand  himself  was  concerned,  he 
acted  as  any  prudent  general  would  do  in  the  absence 


'  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  vol.  i.,  p.  181  et  seq. 
Steuben  to  Haldimand,  August  3,  1783  ;  Ilaklimand  to  Steuben, 
August  13,  1783,  and  Steuben's  report  to  Wasliington. 

'^  Ibid.  Clinton  to  Haldimand,  March  19,  1784,  and  Haldimand  to 
CMinton,  May  10, 1784. 

'  Ibid.  Hull  to  Haldimand,  July  12,  1784,  and  Haldimand  to  Knox, 
July  13,  1784. 

296 


PEACE    THAT    I'KOVKS    NO    1»EACE 

of  definite  instructions;  but  it  is  evi(l<^nt  that, aside  from 
I  lie  lark  of  positive  ordiM's,  he  was  moved  by  his  own 
[)ersonal  knowledge  of  the  enormous  loss  to  British  fur 
interests  involved  in  the  surrender  of  the  posts.  These 
facts  are  made  evident  by  Ilaldimantrs  instructions  to 
liis  successor,  Brigadier  General  Barry  St.  Leger,  to 
whom  he  wrote  that  he  liad  tliought  it  his  duty  •*  uni- 
formly to  oppose  the  '1  liferent  attempts  made  by  the 
American  States  to  got  possession  of  the  posts  in  the 
upper  country  until  his  Majesty's  orders  for  that  pur- 
j)ose  shall  be  received,  and  my  conduct  upon  that  occa- 
sion having  been  approved,  I  have  only  to  recommend 
to  you  a  strict  attention  to  tiie  same."' 

On  the  arrival  in  Phihidelphia  of  George  Hammond, 
the  first  minister  plenipotentiary  of  Great  Britain  to  the 
United  States,  Secretary  Jefferson  promptly  called  his 
attention  to  the  seventh  article  of  the  definitive  treaty 
of  peace,  wherein  it  was  stipulated  that  "his  Britannic 
^lajesty  should,  with  all  convenient  speed,  withdraw  all 
his  armies,  garrisons,  and  fleets  from  tlie  said  United 
States,  and  from  every  post,  place,  and  harbor  within 
tiie  same."  Hammond  rejoined  that  the  posts  were  held 
because  of  the  failure  of  the  United  States  to  secure 
from  the  several  States  the  restitution  of  all  confiscated 
estates,  rights,  and  properties  belonging  to  British  sub- 
j  'cts.  To  this  Mr.  Jefferson  replied  at  great  length  to 
show  that  the  States  had  acted  in  a  spirit  of  concilia- 
tion towards  British  subjects,  and  that  the  treaty  sim- 
ply bound  Congress  to  recommend  such  a  course,  that 
body  having  (as  was  clearly  understood  by  the  treaty- 
makers  and  by  Parliament)  no  authority  to  compel  the 

'  Canadian  Archives,  1890,  p.  xxxii.  Mr.  Douglas  Brymner,  archi- 
vist, discusses  the  whole  subject  with  his  customary  candor  aud  ac- 
curate knowledge. 

397 


'lllh:    NOUTllWKST    L'NDDK    TIIKKi:    FLAGS 

States  so  to  act.  In  any  event,  Jefferson  arguo<l,  Great 
Hritain  was  not  justiiieil  in  exercising  jiirisiiiction  over 
the  country  and  inhabitants  in  the  vicinity  of  the  posts, 
and  in  exchiding  citizens  of  the  United  States  from  nav- 
igating "even  on  our  side  of  the  middle  line  o.^  the 
rivers  and  lakes  estal»lished  as  a  ixjuadary  between  the 
two  nations,"  and  tiius  **  interce[)ting  us  entirely  from 
the  commerce  of  furs  with  Indian  nations  to  the  north- 
ward, a  commerce  which  has  ever  been  of  great  impor- 
tance to  the  United  States,  not  onlv  for  its  intrinsic 
value,  but  as  it  was  a  means  of  cherishing  peace  with 
those  Indians  and  of  supereeding  the  necessity  of  that 
expensive  warfare  wo  have  been  obliged  to  carry  on 
with  them  during  the  time  those  posts  have  been  in 
other  hands.'' ' 

llaldimand's  apprehensions  as  to  the  results  that  must 
follow  from  the  transfer  of  the  sovereifjntv  of  the  Ind- 
ian  country  from  England  to  the  United  States  were 
entirely  justified.  Whether  from  ignorance  or  from 
carelessness,  England  had  neglected  to  provide  for  her 
Indian  allies,  wlio  had  devoted  themselves  to  her  cause 
with  such  remorseless  brutality  as  to  inspire  in  Chatham 
feelings  of  repulsion  that  he  poured  forth  in  invective 
never  surpassed  even  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  In 
so  far  as  he  was  able,  Ilaldimand  undertook  to  repair 
this  neglect  by  seating  the  ruined  Mohawks  on  the 
Grand  River,  that  flows  into  Lake  Erie  some  forty  miles 
above  the  Falls  of  Niagara;  but  such  a  solution  must  of 
necessity  be  ])artial  and  unsatisfactory.  Fortunately, 
however,  Washington  and  Schuyler  took  up  the  sub- 
ject with  Congress,  and  attempted  to  arrange  matters 

'  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Relations,  vol.  i. ,  p.  181.     Jeffer- 
son to  Hammond,  November  29,  1791. 

298 


I'KACK  THAT  I'KUVKS  No  I'KACK 

on  the  basis  uf  blotting  out  the  rernenibrunce  of  the 
past  hostility  of  the  savages,  and  placing  thoin  under 
the  care  of  the  government  of  the  Tnited  States,  instead 
uf  leaving  tiiem  to  the  in(;rci«'s  of  the  several  States.  In 
pursuance  of  tiiis  object,  on  ()c  tober  22,  17*^4,  th«'  ti'eaty 
of  Foi't  Stanwix  was  negotiated  by  Oliver  Wolcott, 
Richard  IJutler,  and  Arthur  Lee  with  the  Six  Nations; 
and  although  the  young  chief  lied  Jacket  was  bitterly 
opposed  to  the  surrender  of  lands,  the  more  astute  chief 
Corn-|)lanter  threw  the  weight  of  his  age  and  experi- 
ence into  the  scale  in  favor  of  the  Americans.  I'nfort- 
unately  for  our  country,  while  this  treaty  was  being  ne- 
gotiated, Brant,  the  great  chief  of  the  Six  Nations,  was 
in  Quebec  for  the  purpose  of  securing  title  to  the  British 
grant  of  twelve  hundred  square  miles  on  the  Grand 
River;  and  when  he  learned  of  the  negotiations  he  not 
only  opposed  the  results,  but  immediately  he  visited  the 
western  and  Lake  Indians  to  form  a  confederacy  for 
tiie  ])rotection  of  the  Indian  lands  as  far  south  as  the 
Ohio.  The  inception  of  this  plan  seems  to  have  been 
entirely  with  Brant ;  its  support  came  from  England, 
not  quickly,  or  as  a  matter  of  high  official  policy,  but 
slowly,  increasingly,  and  by  the  action  of  subordinates 
on  the  ground.' 

Ilavinir  eno^aijed  the  northern  and  western  tribes  to 
act  together.  Brant  set  sail  for  England  to  obtain  from 
the  crown  compensation  for  the  losses  incurred  by  the 
Mohawks  in  their  support  of  the  British  during  the 
Revolution ;  and  his  success  created  one  more  tie  that 
bound  the  Indians  to  the  cause  of  England.     Arriving 

'  Stone's  Life  of  Joseph  Brant  gives  tlie  best  connected  account  of 
Ibe  intrigues  and  negotiations  from  the  treaty  of  1783  to  1790.  It  is 
to  be  read  in  conneclicn  with  the  correspondence  in  the  Ilaldimand 
Papers. 

399 


TjUK    iNtUi  I  IIWKST    LNDKU    TlIKI^ii    FLAGS 

in  Kuirlanil  in  (ho  DoiMMiihcr  of  ITSf),  Hn^nt  rocoivod  a 
wolooino  Shell  ns  llial  iMMmtrv  ov(»r  accords  to  a  foreign 
sovtM'ci^n,  no  inattM'  what  -ns  co'or  or  liow  liinilcd  his 
sovcrciixntv.  AVilh  many  of  tlic  olliccrs  he  was  aln^ady 
ac(|nainlcd ;  and  kin»;\  (juccn,  and  prince,  slatesniaii  and 
wit,  men  of  fashion  anil  hidies  of  (juaht}',  all  /j^avo  him 
wolconie.  K  m'  did  he  prove  an  nnwortiiy  re|)rosentativo 
of  tlio  Xew  Wot  hi.  I  >ecH nini;' to  kiss  tiie  Iiand  of  (ieor^c^ 
IIL,  he  professivl  cMitire  wiUin^iH^ss  to  perform  snch  hom- 
i\iX^^  to  thtMjnciMi.  When  at  a  masked -hall  a/rnrkish  diplo- 
mat altemj)tod  to  feel  of  the  t(\\tnrc  of  his  paititod  noso, 
snpposed  to  he  false,  l»rant  in(h»hj^fd  his  native  Tn(han 
hnmor  hy  givii\i^  vent  to  a,  war-whoop  tliat  cu?(11(m1  th(^ 
blood  in  the  danctM's,  and  sent  them  lleeini''  Ixd'oro  tlip 
•rleaminii"  tomahawk  of  wlioso  prowess  thev  had  hear«l 
with  horror.  On  his  comiiif!^  he  was  met  by  l)e  Poys- 
ter ;  he  was  dinod  by  Ihirke,  Fox,  and  Sheridan;  the 
Vrince  of  Wales  showed  him  the  slights  of  tlu^  town; 
llaldimand  did  him  honor  in  armv  circles  ;  and  Sir(tnv 
Carlelon,  then  on  the  [)ointof  retnrnin«j:  to  Ainerica,  did 
not  fail  to  cnltivate  the  lion  of  the  tow^n,  wdiose  roar  ho 
\vas  afterwards  to  invoke  for  pnrposos  of  state.  Tletu»*n- 
ing  to  this  conntry  in  DecemhtM-,  ITSfJ,  P>rant  called  the 
chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations  and  of  the  western  and  Lake 
Indians  to  a  conncil. 

The  first  ice  of  winter  was  sealinii:  the  channels  be- 
tween  the  islands  at  the  month  of  the  Detroit,  w4ien,  in 
the  Xi>vembor  of  1TS(),  the  United  Indian  Nations 
irathered  for  tlieir  first  confederate  conncil  in  the 
Huron  village  near  the  head  of  Lake  Erie.  The  pur- 
pose of  this  most  dignified  -^nd  im})ortant  assembly  was 
to  prepare  an  address  to  their  *'  brethren  of  the  thirteen 
United  States  of  America.''     With  absolute  directness 

this  state  paper  declares  the  disappointment  of  the  Inil- 

300 


PKACK    THAT    rilOVKS    NO    I'KACK 

ians  aftnr  Irivin^  <'\|><Mirnc«Ml  l.lmjn  yrjirs  of  lln'  pracM? 
iiiiidi^  l>ot\vu(!M  llio  riiiLiMl  Statics  and  Kn^^ljind.  Tlu^y 
had  hoped  for  a  h'iHtin<j;  frf<;ti<lslii|)  liotwouii  themselves 
and  thv'w  **<)i(h!Ht  hn^UinMi,"  T\u)y  had  n'(;eiv<Ml  two 
a<;re(Nihl(5  inosHa,^es  Inun  \\u\  Tnited  Stales,  and  at  thn 
sainc^  tini(5  had  heen  a,slu;d  l»y  the  Ivin^  whose  war  tlif'y 
had  been  on<^a|^ed  in  to  n^iiiain  (juiet.  They  now  gave 
notice  that  in  future  no  council  would  be  hf^hl  Ic^^al  un- 
less the  entin^  (jontech^racy  gave  its  j  ^sent ;  and  that 
tiiey  were  ready  to  make  a  lasting  tr(!aty  of  peace,  and 
for  that  purpose  would  in(M;t  tlie  An»eri(  an  cjofninission- 
ers  in  the  spring,  "  to  bury  in  oblivion  Llie  niischiel'  that 
had  happened,  and  sj)eak  to  each  ot'ier  in  the  style  of 
friiMulship."  There  was  one  condition.  '•  IJroLhers," 
says  the  message,  "  we  again  re(piest  ol'you,  in  the  most 
earnest  manner,  that  you  will  order  your  surveyors  and 
others  that  march  on  lands,  to  cease  from  crossing  the 
Ohio  until  wo  shall  have  spoken  to  you,  because  the  mis- 
chief that  has  recently  ha,j)pened  has  always  originated 
in  that  (piarter.  We.  shall  likewise;  preserve  our  p**o{)le 
from  icoing  over  until  that  time." 

Such  was  the  ultimatum.  Then  came  this  warning: 
"Brothers,  it  will  be  owing  to  vour  arrogance  if  this 
laudable  ])lan  which  we  so  earnestly  wish  lor  is  not 
carried  into  execution.  In  that  cas(;  the  result  will  be 
very  precarious,  and  if  fresh  ruptures  ensue,  we  are  sure 
we  will  be  able  to  exculpate  ourselves,  and  most  assured- 
ly, with  our  united  force,  be  obliged  to  defend  those  immu- 
nities which  the  Great  Spirit  has  been  pleased  to  give  us ; 
and  if  we  should  then  be  reduced  to  misfoilune,  the  worhl 
will  pity  us,  when  they  think  of  the  amicable  proposals 
we  made  to  prevent  the  effusion  of  unnecessary  blood. 


??  1 


*  Indian  Speech  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  Micfdrjan 

301 


THE  NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

That  the  speech  to  Congress  was  the  work  of  Captain 
Brant  is  made  apparent  by  his  remarks  made  six  days 
later  at  MeKee's  council,  held  at  the  same  Huron  vil- 
lage.'  With  the  same  plain  speaking  he  had  used  tow- 
ards the  Americans,  Brant  now  told  the  king's  repre- 
sentative that  it  w^as  the  devotion  of  the  Indians  to  the 
cause  of  the  British  that  had  made  the  Americans  ^heir 
enemies;  and  that  while  tlie  British  were  enjoy in^  the 
blessings  of  peace  the  Indians  were  still  involved  in  hos- 
tilities. Therefore,  Brant,  on  behalf  of  the  confederacy, 
demanded  from  "  the  great  representative  of  the  king, 
now  arrived  on  this  continent,"  an  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  English  would  support  them  in  their 
demand  for  the  Ohio  as  a  boundary.  In  this  manner 
the  vital  question  was  referred  to  Lord  Dorchester.'' 

While  he  was  in  England,  Brant  had  attempted  to 
learn  from  the  Colonial  Secretary,  Lord  Sidney,  whether 
Great  Britain  would  support  the  Indians  in  making  war 
on  the  Americans.  Lord  Sidney  evaded  the  question ; 
and  his  example  was  followed  by  Sir  Guy  Carleton  (now 
Lord  Dorchester),  who  had  arrived  at  Quebec,  on  Novem- 
ber 23, 1786,  to  resume  the  office  of  Governor  of  Canada. 
Major  Matthews,  on  his  way  to  take  command  at  De- 

Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  vol.  xi.,  p.  467.  The  tribes  repre- 
sented were  the  Six  Nations,  Hurons,  Delaware s,  Shawanese,  Otta- 
was,  Chippew^as,  Pottawatomies,  Cherokees,  Vvabash  Confederates, 
and  Miamis. 

'  On  July  23,  1787.  General  Knox  acknowledged  the  receipt  of 
Brant's  letter  from  Huron  Town,  dated  December  18,  1786,  the  com- 
munication having  been  delayed  by  the  Shawanese.  Knox  assured 
Brant  that  the  matter  had  been  laid  before  Congress,  "  who  have  taken 
the  same  into  consideration,  and  will  soon  come  to  some  decision 
thereon,  which  will  be  communicated  to  the  superintendent  (General 
Butler)  in  order  to  be  transmitted  to  you." 

•^  McKee's  Report,  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  vol 
xi.,  p.  471. 

302 


GE^'EUAL   tilU  GUY   CAltLETON 


PEACE  THAT  PROVES  NO  PEACE 

troit,  wrote  to  Brant  from  Niagara  that  the  British,  so 
far  from  intending  to  surrender  the  posts,  were,  on  the 
contrary,  strengthening  them,  and  would  hold  them  so 
long  as  the  Indians  were  ready  to  prevent  the  Amer- 
icans from  coming  against  them.  Lord  Dorchester, 
wrote  the  major,  was  sorry  that  the  Six  Nations  had 
promised  to  aid  the  Americans  to  make  roads  for  the 
purpose  of  approaching  Niagara.  "  In  future  his  lord- 
ship wishes  them  (the  Indians)  to  act  as  is  best  for  their 
interest;  he  cannot  begin  a  war  with  the  Americans 
because  some  of  their  people  encroach  and  make  depre- 
dations upon  parts  of  the  Indian  country  ;  but  they  must 
see  it  is  his  lordship's  intention  to  defend  the  posts;  and 
while  these  are  preserved,  the  Indians  must  find  great 
security  therefrom." ' 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  satisfactory  to  the 
English  commanders  in  America  than  was  the  result  of 
Brant's  efforts  to  unite  the  Indians  in  a  demand  for  the 
Ohio  boundary.  Sir  John  Johnson,  the  British  super- 
intendent of  Indian  affairs,  expressed  this  satisfaction  in 
a  letter  to  Brant,  in  the  course  of  which  this  significant 
passage  occurs :  "  Do  not  suffer  an  idea  to  hold  a  place 
in  your  mind  that  it  will  be  for  your  interests  to  sit  still 
and  see  the  Americans  attempt  the  posts.  It  is  for  your 
sakes  chiefl^^,  if  not  entirely,  that  we  hold  them.  If 
you  become  indifferent  about  them,  they  may  perhaps 
be  given  up ;  what  security  would  you  then  have  ?  You 
would  be  left  at  the  mercy  of  a  people  whose  blood  calls 
for  revenge ;  whereas  by  supporting  them  you  encour- 
age us  to  hold  them,  and  encourage  the  new  settlements, 
already  considerable,  and  every  day  increasing  by  num- 

'  Stone's  Life  of  Joseph  Brant,  vol.  ii.,  p.  270.  Matthews  to  Brant, 
May  29, 1787. 

303 


THE     NOKTIIWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

bers  coming  in,  who  find  they  can't  live  in  the  states. 
Many  thousands  are  preparing  to  come  in.  This  increase 
of  his  Majesty's  subjects  will  serve  as  a  protection  for 
you,  should  the  subjects  of  the  states,  b}^  endeavoring 
to  make  further  encroachments  on  you,  disturb  your 
quiet." ' 

Had  the  British  surrendered  the  Northwestern  posts, 
as  provided  in  the  treaty  of  1783,  the  Indians  would 
have  been  dependent  on  the  Americans  for  those  mar- 
kets w4iich  w^ere  the  surest  means  of  obtaining  and  main- 
taining peace.  By  holding  the  posts  in  order  to  protect 
the  fur-trade  and  to  secure  the  claims  of  the  loj^alists, 
England  forced  the  United  States  into  Indian  w^ars  that 
cost  the  lives  of  thousands  of  our  people  and  long  held 
back  immigration  and  settlement. 

Lord  Dorchester  found  additional  reasons'*  for  the 
retention  of  the  posts  in  the  fact  that  the  United  States 
as  a  nation  was  still  an  experiment;  that  there  were 
many  elements  of  disunion,  and  great  differences  of 
opinion  as  to  w^hether  the  new  government  should  be  a 
monarchy  or  a  republic;  and  that  France  and  Spain 
were  anxiously  watching  every  opportunity  to  strength- 
en and  increase  their  influence  and  territory  in  JN^orth 
America.  To  be  sure,  the  region  west  of  the  Mississippi 
nominally  belonged  to  Spain;  but  in  view^  of  relations 
subsisting  betw^een  the  tw^o  nations,  the  secret  transfer 
that  was  brought  about  in  1762  might  well  be  reversed 
at  any  time  without  warning ;  and  as  a  matter  of  fact 
Louisiana  w^as  transferred  back  to  France  in  1800. 

'  Stone's  Life  of  Joseph  Brant,  vol.  ii.,  p.  268. 

2  Dorchester  to  Sidney,  January  16,  April  10, 1787  ;  October  14, 1788 ; 
and  April  11,  \1^%.— Canadian  Archives,  1890.  Under  the  head  of 
"Relations  with  the  United  States  after  the  Peace  of  1783,"  Mr.  Brym- 
ner  has  grouped  these  letters. 

304 


PEACE  THAT  PROVES  NO  PEACE 

In  this  critical  situation  Lord  Dorchester's  position 
was  most  delicate.  The  creation  of  a  new  nation  out 
of  the  thirteen  British  colonies  on  the  xVtlantic  had  left 
the  remaining  English  possessions  in  America  but  little 
better  than  a  string  of  isolated  towns  and  posts  loosely 
held  together  by  one  industry  —  the  fur- trade.*  The 
great  majority  of  the  people  were  French,  without  am- 
bition or  initiative.  Indeed,  they  seemed  almost  as 
much  a  part  of  their  lands  as  were  the  very  houses. 
Even  the  traders  and  wood -rangers  kept  the  narrowest 
of  paths  as  they  performed  their  regular  service  for  the 
great  company  which  employed  them.  Out  of  these 
unpromising  elements  Lord  Dorchester  succeeded  in 
laying  the  broad  and  deep  foundations  on  which  the 
Canada  of  to-day  has  been  built.  As  Champlain  was 
the  father  of  New  France,  so  Lord  Dorchester  became 
the  father  of  Canada.  A  great  administrator,  his  char- 
acter is  sullied  by  no  act  of  personal  greed;  and  al- 
though he  lived  during  the  most  openly  corrupt  period 
of  British  politics,  the  utmost  that  can  be  said  against 
him  is  that  a  slender  purse  and  a  large  family  led  him 
to  strive  for  continuance  in  official  position.  Trained 
to  war,  he  won  distinction  by  bestowing  on  a  discord- 
ant and  unreconciled  people  the  blessings  of  peace  and 
tranquillity."     To  the  loyalists,  driven  from  the  United 

*  The  best  discussion  of  the  question  of  the  retention  of  the  posts  is 
to  be  found  in  Professor  Andrew  C.  McLaughlin's  paper  on  "  Western 
Posts  and  British  Debts,"  printed  in  the  American  Historiral  Society 
Report  for  1894  ;  and  subsequently  in  the  New  England  Yale  Review. 

'^  Lord  Dorchester,  the  third  son  of  General  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  of 
Xewry,  County  Down,  Ireland,  was  born  in  1724  ;  he  served  in  Flan- 
ders, and  was  wounded  at  the  siege  of  Bergen -op -Zoom.  He  was 
quartermaster-general  in  Wolfe  s  expedition  against  Quebec,  and  was 
wounded  twice  in  the  operations  about  that  city.  A  fourth  wound 
was  received  at  the  capture  of  Havana.  His  success  in  driving  the 
U  305 


TIIK     NOUTIIWEST    UNDER    TIIRKE    FLAGS 

States  because  of  tlieir  fealty  to  the  crown  of  England, 
he  extended  every  opportunity  to  make  settlements 
within  the  broad  regions  that  still  remained  of  Eng- 
land's transatlantic  empire.  His  efforts  on  behalf  of 
Canada  often  resulted  to  the  detriment  of  the  United 
States;  for  it  was  inevitable  that  the  violent  feelings 
engendered  by  the  Revolution,  and  especially  by  the 
treatment  —  justly,  as  we  believe  —  accorded  to  the 
Tories,  should  continue  to  tind  expression  whenever 
provocation  offered. 

Even  while  advocating  the  passage  of  the  Quebec  act 
before  the  House  of  Commons,  he  was  frank  to  state 
that  the  Indians  regarded  the  country  between  the 
Ohio  and  the  Great  Lakes  as  their  own  territory,  with- 
in which  no  European  monarch  had  rights.  It  is  not 
strange,  therefore,  to  find  him  willing  to  give  counte- 
nance to  this  position,  when  it  was  maintained  in  op- 
position to  the  United  States  by  Brant  and  the  Indians 
over  whom  that  powerful  chief  had  influence.  This 
theory  of  Indian  monarchy  had  been  asserted  against 
the  French  and  English  at  the  outbreak  of  the  French 
and  Indian  War,  and  against  the  English  and  Americans 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution;  but  it  never  was 
acquiesced  in  by  the  whites.  Indeed,  the  Indians  them- 
selves had  repudiated  it  repeatedly  by  placing  them- 

Ainericfins  from  Canada  should  have  been  rewarded  by  the  command 
of  the  expedition  led  by  Burgoyne.  It  is  fortunate  for  our  country 
that  a  less  capable  man  was  selected.  As  governor  of  Canada  he  won 
the  reputation  of  "having  the  cleanest  hands  of  any  person  ever  in- 
trusted with  public  money."  As  commander  of  the  British  forces  in 
New  York  he  managed  the  withdraw^al  of  the  English  troops.  He 
was  one  of  Wolfe's  executors  and  legatees.  In  1786  he  was  raised  to 
the  peerage  as  Baron  Dorchester.  For  a  sketch  of  his  life,  see  The 
English  PoUticid  Magazine  for  1782,  p.  351 ;  and  Kingsford's  History 
of  Canada^  vol.  v.,  p.  191. 

306 


PEACE    THAT    I'UOVES    NO    I'EACE 

selves  under  the  protection  of  France  or  of  Engljind. 
Moreover,  the  treat v  of  1783  left  Dorchester  no  ri^rht 
to  interfere  beyond  the  line  of  the  British  possessions; 
although  as  a  practical  ruler  he  doubtless  felt  himself 
bound   to   take   advantat2:e   of   ^inv  circumstance   that 

O  4.' 

would  aid  England  to  regain  the  Western  country,  in 
case  the  uneasy  settlers  should  incline  to  seek  an  alliance 
with  Spain  in  order  to  gain  an  outlet  for  their  products. 
In  all  the  intrigues  of  those  most  troul)lous  times, 
Quebec  was  the  headquarters  for  Hritish  intluence,  as 
New  Orleans  w^as  for  Spanish  and  French  designs  on  the 
new  nation.  To  aid  Lord  Dorchester  to  understand  the 
problem  with  which  he  had  to  deal,  an  emissary  who 
had  proved  himself  valuable  during  the  Revolution  was 
sent  from  England,  and,  at  the  munificent  sahiry  of  £200 
a  year,  was  despatched  to  the  Northwestern  country'  as 
a  spy.  The  observations  of  this  "  cool  and  temperate 
man"  throw  a  strong  lighten  the  manner  in  which  the 
beo^inninf^s  of  our  national  existence  were  reo^arded  in 
British  ministerial  circles,  and  prove  conclusively  that 
England  acted  deliberately  in  supporting  the  Indians 
while  they  carried  on  the  warfare  against  the  armies  of 
the  United  States.  To  the  English  the  Indians  were 
part  and  parcel  of  the  fur-trade,  w^hich  w^as  to  be  main- 
tained at  everv  cost.  Therefore  it  was  essential  that  the 
savages  be  protected  in  their  hunting-grounds.  Dor- 
chester apprehended  that  the  United  States  meant  to 
take  the  posts  by  force,  and,  however  indifferent  England 
might  be  about  retaining  them,  he  was  prepared  to  repel 
war  by  war.' 

^  Brymaer  identifies  this  agent  as  Major  George  Beckwith,  but  the 
facts  concerning  him  are  obscure. — See  Canadian  Archims,  1890,  p. 
xi.  et  seq, 

'^  Dorchester  to  Sir  John  Johnson,  December  11, 1786:  Dorchester  to 
Sidney,  January  16,  1787.— See  Canadian  ArcJiives,  1890. 

307 


TUK    NOKTllWKST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

Making  his  heiulquarters  at  Detroit,  tlie  British  emis- 
sary put  himself  in  communication  with  Pittshurg  and 
Kentucky,  and  ma(l(3  systematic  reports  to  Dorchester. 
The  emigration  to  Kentucky  and  the  Ohio  regions  he 
declared  to  exceed  the  bounds  of  credibilitv.  *^  The  en- 
terprising  people  of  New  England,  checked  in  their 
commercial  pursuits,  turn  with  wonderful  facility  t«) 
this  tempting  though  remote  country,  and  witliout  be- 
ing deterred  by  the  danger,  or  prev^ented  by  the  diffi 
cultv  of  finding  means  of  subsistence  for  themselves 
and  families  until  they  can  form  an  establishment  in 
those  distant  settlements,  they  travel  in  liordes  to  the 
Southwest,  threatening  the  weak  Spanish  provinces  with 
early  hostilities."  As  a  preliminary  step,  Colonel  Sher- 
man, of  Connecticut,  was  preparing  to  cross  the  Missis- 
sippi with  tive  hundred  armed  men,  and  to  establish  a 
post  at  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri.  The  Kentuckians, 
too,  were  bent  on  forcing  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  plans  were  maturing  to  reach  the 
Michilimackinac  fur -trade  along  the  water -route  dis- 
covered by  Joliet  and  Marquette  more  than  a  century 
before.  All  these  schemes  were  being  prosecuted  with- 
out regard  to  Congress,  a  body  as  yet  too  feeble  to  exer- 
cise authority  over  any  part  of  the  Western  country.' 

The  situation  in  the  Western  country  had  indeed  be- 
come critical  for  the  United  States.  Separated  from 
the  Atlantic  seaboard  by  a  difficult  range  of  mountains, 

'  In  October,  1786,  Clark  led  a  feeble  expedition  against  the  Indians 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Viuceunes,  the  people  of  which  place  bud 
written  to  him  that  they  considered  themselves  British  subjects. 
Clark  placed  a  garrison  in  fort ;  but  his  own  habits  had  now  become 
so  bad  that  he  had  no  control  over  his  men,  and  both  Virginia  and 
Congress  were  compelled  to  repudiate  his  action  in  seizing  property 
belonging  to  a  Spanish  trader.  —See  English's  Life  of  Oeorge  Rogen 
Clark,  vol.  ii.,  p.  796. 

308 


PEACE  THAT  PROVES  NO  PEACE 

the  Northwest  was  still  in  possession  of  numerous  bands 
of  hostile  Indians  fed  and  clothed  by  Great  Britain,  and 
thus  enabled  to  carry  on  a  warfare  of  extermination 
against  the  settlers.  On  the  north  the  outlet  for  the 
fiir-trade  was  bv  the  St.  Lawrence.     On  the  west  the 

ft- 

Kentucky  and  Illinois  countries  must  find  an  outlet  for 
their  trade  by  way  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  navi^^a- 
tion  of  that  stream  was  in  control  of  the  Spanish,  who 
were  using  this  advantage  to  alienate  the  Western  peo- 
ple from  their  remote  kinsmen  east  of  the  mountains. 
No  one  appreciated  this  situation  better  than  Presi- 
dent Washington,  who  was  himself  a  large  owner  of 
Ohio  lands,  but  whose  concern  for  the  expansion  and 
strengthening  of  the  nation  was  of  such  a  character  as 
to  make  his  personal  interests  not  a  bias  but  simply  a 
means  of  knowledge.  More  closely  than  any  other  man 
then  living  he  had  been  identified  with  the  beginni!igs 
of  Western  conquest.  As  a  young  man  he  had  played  a 
large  part  in  wresting  the  Northwest  from  France  ;  and 
now  in  his  maturer  years  he  was  to  direct  those  forces 
which  were  forever  to  bind  that  territory  to  the  United 
States. 

Five  years  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution, 
Washington  had  urged  upon  Governor  Thomas  Johnson 
of  Maryland  the  necessity  of  an  enlarged  plan  for  reach- 
ing the  Ohio,  "  as  a  means  of  becoming  the  channel  of 
conveyance  of  the  extensive  and  valuable  trade  of  a  ris- 
ing empire."*  Before  resigning  his  commission  as  com- 
mander-in-chief, Washington  had  made  a  tour  of  western 
New  York,  in  company  with  Governor  Clinton,  and  the 
two  made  a  joint  purchase  of  six  thousand  acres  ;  for  he 


'  House  of  Representatives  Report  No.  238,  Nineteenth  Congress, 
first  session. 

309 


TIIK    NOUTIIWKST    UXDKK    TINtKK    FLA(iS 

rightly  approliendod  tliat  *'  the  Yorkers  will  delay  no 
time  to  remove  everv  obstacle  in  the  wav  of  otlirr  com- 
iminication,  so  soon  as  the  posts  of  Oswego  and  Niagara 
are  surrendered."'  In  17^^,  Washington  spent  a  month 
riding  through  tiie  Ohio  country  to  examine  the  routes 
for  penetrating  the  mountains;  and  it  was  on  this  trip 
that  he  first  met  Albert  Oallatin,  who  has  left  on  reconl 
a  description  of  the  scene.  The  gn^at  soldier  seated  at 
the  head  of  a  rough  tal)le  in  a  frontier  cabin,  cmIUmI  one 
after  another  from  the  crowd  of  frontiersmen  and  ex- 
amined each  at  length  as  to  trails  and  gaps,  pursuing 
the  question  long  after  the  nimble  minded  young  Swiss 
had  decided  on  which  side  the  weight  of  testimony  lay. 
The  extreme  patience  and  caie  that  the  general  took  to 
get  to  the  bottom  of  the  matter  before  allowing  his 
own  mind  to  reach  a  decision  greatly  impressed  Gallatin 
with  the  force  and  strength  of  Washington's  character." 
Ileturning  fi'om  this  hoi'seback  journey  of  nearly  seven 
hundi'ed  miles,  Washington  laid  before  Governor  Har- 
rison of  Virginia  a  great  scheme  for  bringing  the  trade 
from  Detroit  and  the  AVest  to  tide-water  by  way  of  Fort 
Pitt  and  the  Potomac,  a  route  more  than  a  hundred 
miles  shorter  than  that  by  way  of  Philadelphia,  and  three 
hundred  miles  shorter  than  the  Albanv  route.'  Calling' 
Harrison's  attention  to  the  fact  that  "  the  flanks  and 
rear"  of  the  United  States  Avere  possessed  by  Spain  and 
England,  he  argued  that  unless  shorter  and  easier  chan- 
nels were  made  for  the  trade  of  the  West,  ''the  stream  of 
commerce  will  glide  gently  down  the  Mississippi"; 
while  by  opening  these  new  communications,  all  parts 
of  the  Union  would  be  cemented  together  by  common  in- 

'  Washington's  will. 

-  Henry  Adams's  Life  of  Albert  Gallatin,  p.  57. 
3  Pickell's  Histoi'y  of  the  Potomac  Company,  p.  174. 

310 


{;k(>U(;k  wasiiinctox 

(After  a  painting  by  Gilbert  ;Jtuart. 


PEACE  THAT  rROVES  NO  PEACE 

terests.  By  opening  the  eastern  water  communications 
to  the  Ohio,  and  by  opening  the  Ohio  to  Lake  Erie,  was 
Washington's  method  to  ''draw  not  only  the  produce  of 
the  Western  settlers,  but  also  the  peltry  and  fur-trade  of 
the  lakes  to  our  posts  :  thus  adding  an  immense  increase 
to  our  exports,  and  binding  these  people  to  us  by  a  chain 
which  can  never  be  broken."'  In  1785  Washington  be- 
came the  first  president  of  the  Potomac  Company,  but 
when  he  was  elected  President  of  the  United  States,  in 
1788,  ne  turned  the  office  over  to  Thomas  Johnson.  The 
costly  national  road  to  Wheeling,  and  the  Chesapeake  and 
Ohio  Canal,  whose  crumbling  masonry  and  still  used  but 
almost  overgrown  towpaths  are  now  more  picturesque 
than  useful,  were  the  direct  results  of  Washington's  en- 
thusiasm for  Western  communications;  while  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  Kailroad  trains  now  thunder  along  the 
Cumberland  turnpike  from  Pittsburg  to  the  Potomac' 
As  at  the  end  of  the  old  plays  the  actors  one  by 
one  step  to  the  foot -lights  to  make  their  parting 
speeches,  so  we  take  leave  of  the  nore  prominent 
British  players  in  the  drama  of  the  Ee volution  in  the 
Northwest.      On  June  23,  1782,  the  Bcedalus  arrived 

*  Marshall's  Zi/(?  o/  Washington,  vol.  v.,  p.  14. 

'^  For  Washington's  connection  with  Western  lands  and  the  Potomac 
Company,  see  the  very  suggestive  papers  by  Herbert  B.  Adams,  Ph.D., 
'n  Johns  Hopkins  "Historical  Studies,"  third  series.  Dr.  Adams  figures 
that  Washington  owned  in  1799  about  70,000  acres  of  land  which  he 
had  originally  bought  for  speculative  purposes  ;  his  lands  were  valued 
at  $488,339  ;  and  in  the  Northwest  Territory  on  the  Little  Miami  he 
held  3051  acres  valued  at  So  an  acre.  The  father  of  his  country  was 
at  once  a  man  of  the  highest  personal  and  political  probity  ;  and  yet 
he  was  a  speculator !  As  Henry  Adams  points  out  {Life  of  Albert 
Gallatin,  p.  53),  all  America  was  engaged  in  land  speculations. 
Robert  Morris  closed  his  public  career  a  bankrupt  and  in  prison  as  the 
result  of  his  speculations  in  lands ;  and  no  one  seems  to  have  made  a 
fortune  by  such  investments. 

311 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

from  England  bearing  the  news  that  Henry  Hamilton 
had  been  appointed  lieutenant-governor  at  Quebec, 
and  that  his  fellow-prisoner  Jehu  Hay  had  been  com- 
missioned to  the  same  office  at  Detroit. 

Hamilton's  sufferings  in  his  Virginia  "dungeon"  ex- 
cited a  great  amount  of  sympathy  for  him,  both  in 
England  and  among  the  Tories  in  America.'  The  posi- 
tion in  which  he  now  found  himself,  however,  so  far 
exceeded  his  abilities  that,  after  scarcely  more  than 
a  year  at  Quebec,  the  government  notified  him  that 
there  was  no  further  need  of  his  services.  His  friends 
succf^eded,  to  use  his  phrase,  "  in  forging  for  him  on  the 
public  anvil "  an  appointment  as  governor  of  Bermuda, 
where  his  name  is  still  perpetuated  in  the  capital  city  of 
those  islands.  Tradition  in  Bermuda  has  it  that  he  was 
a  homely  man,  of  quiet,  unpretentious  habits,  not  given 
to  display  or  ostentation."     After  four  years  of  service 

^  In  Winthrop  Sargent's  Loyalist  Poeti'y  of  the  Eevoluiion,  p.  50,  is 
this  stanza  on  Jefferson  and  Hamilton: 

"Virginia  caitiff!  Jeff  by  name, 
Perhaps  of  Jeffries  sprung,  of  rotten  fame ; 
His  savage  letter  all  belief  exceeds, 
And  Congress  glories  in  his  brutal  deeds. 
In  the  dark  dungeon  Hamilton  is  thrown  ; 
The  virtuous  hero  there  disdains  to  groan  ! 
There,  with  his  brave  companions,  faithful  friends, 
Th'  approaching  hour  in  silence  he  attends, 
When,  with  his  council,  shall  the  wretch  expire 
Or  by  the  British  or  celestial  fire !" 

Hamilton  was  exchanged  for  Captain  James  Willing,  of  Philadel- 
phia, a  younger  brother  of  Bouquet's  friend  and  correspondent.  See 
ante,  p.  156. 

'For  this  bit  of  tradition,  extant  in  the  family  of  Chief -justice 
Leonard,  of  Hamilton,  Bermuda,  as  well  as  for  copies  of  Hamilton's 
letters  and  the  records  of  his  governorship,  I  am  under  obligations 
to  Mrs,  Mary  K.  Bosworth  Smith.    In  a  letter  to  Lieutenant  Jacob 

312 


PEACE  THAT  PROVES  NO  PEACE 

there  he  was  transferred  to  the  governorship  of  Domini- 
ca, where  in  1796  he  died,  full  of  years,  and  not  with- 
out public  esteem  and  honors.' 

Although  Lord  Shelburne  professed  Ihat  in  appoint- 
\r\ct  Hamilton  and  Ilav  he  had  acted  entirelv  on  Hal- 
diraand's  recommendations,  as  he  himself  was  unac- 
quainted with  either  of  the  gentlemen,  Haldimand  was 
not  willing  to  see  so  faithful  and  efficient  an  officer 
as  De  Feyster  placed  under  a  half-pay  lieutenant  like 
Hay.  Accordingly  the  commander-in-chief  detained 
Detroit's  new  lieutenant-governor  until  he  secured  De 
Peysters  promotion  and  transfer  to  Niagara.  Hay 
reached  his  new  station  in  the  July  of  1784,  much 
broken  in  health  and  spirits ;  and  after  a  year  of  peace- 
ful occupation  of  the  governors  palace,  on  August  2, 
1785,  he  was  carried  thence  to  his  grave.'*  In  Septem- 
ber, 1785,  De  Peyster  returned  to  England  with  his  regi- 
ment, and  eventually  settled  in  Scotland,  in  the  town  of 
Dumfries,  relinquishing  the  pursuit  of  arms  for  the 
gentler  occupations  of  domestic  life.  Yet  his  martial 
vigor  only  slumbered ;  for  when  the  Napoleonic  wars 
made  it  necessary  to  embody  the  militia  to  defend  Great 
Britain's  coasts.  Colonel  de  Feyster  became  commander 
of  the  Dumfries  Gentlemen  Volunteers,  which  organi- 

Schieffelin,  of  New  York  (the  original  of  which  was  presented  to  the 
Hamilton  Library  in  1897  by  a  son  of  Henry  Hamilton  Schieffeliu), 
the  governor  says  :  "Everything  at  this  place  goes  on  very  harmo- 
Diously  ;  and  tho'  I  had  a  strong  desire  to  have  remained  in  Canada, 
and  had  many  vahiable  acquaintances  there  whom  I  highly  esteem, 
yet  1  think  my  lot  is  cast  in  a  fair  ground,  and  am  satisfied."  Hamil- 
ton was  the  fourth  son  of  Gustavus  Frederick,  seventh  Viscount 
Boyne. 

'  There  is  a  short  obituary  notice  in  The  Gentleman*s  Magazine  for 
1796. 

'Ford's  Moravian  Settlements  at  Mt.  Clemens,  Michigan  Pioneer 
uid  Historical  Collections,  vol.  x.,  p.  107. 

313 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

zation  he  drilled  with  the  thoroughness  of  a  martinet. 
The  commander,  ho\Yever,  saw  but  one  contest.  In  the 
columns  of  the  local  paper  he  essayed  a  combat  in  verse, 
only  to  be  badly  worsted  by  one  of  his  own  soldiers — 
Eobert  Burns.'  In  November,  1822,  De  Peyster  mounted 
his  great  charger  for  the  last  time,  riding  about  the 
country  with  the  vigor  of  middle  age ;  on  the  26th  of 
that  month  an  accident  brought  him  to  his  death,  at  the 
ripe  age  of  eighty-six  years."  In  November,  1784,  Haldi- 
mand  sailed  from  Quebec  for  London,  where  he  was  well 
received  by  Lord  Sidney,  and  was  presented  to  the  king 
and  queen  ;  with  all  due  pomp  and  circumstance  he  was 
made  a  Knight  of  the  Bath  ;'  and  as  Sir  Frederick  Ilaldi- 
mand  he  died  in  May,  1791,  at  his  birthplace,  Yverdon, 
Switzerland,  leaving  an  ample  fortune  to  his  nephew  and 
his  nieces.*  On  March  17,  1785,  Pat  Sinclair  was  re- 
leased from  Xewgate  Prison,  in  London,  on  payment  of 
the  Mackinac  bills  protested  by  llaldimand.' 

•  See  Biirns's  Poem  on  Life,  addressed  to  Colonel  De  Peyster. 
2  De  Pet/fiter's  Miscellanies,  p.  clxxi. 
^  Haldimand's  Diary,  Canadian  Archives,  1889,  p.  145. 
■*  Canadian  Archives,  1889,  p.  xxv. 

^  Haldimand's  Diary,  Canadian  Archives,  1889,  p.  147  ;   Sinclair  to 
Haldimand,  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Histoncal  Collections,  vol.  xi.,  p.  456. 


CHAPTER   IX 
THE   NORTHWEST  TERRITORY 

Silas  Deane  of  Connecticut,  sent  to  France  as  one  of 
the  agents  of  the  Continental  Congress  in  order  to  obtain 
supplies  for  the  army  and  loans  for  the  United  States, 
not  meeting  with  all  the  success  that  his  principal  de- 
sired, repeatedly  suggested  that  the  Western  lands  be 
sold  to  obtain  the  money  that  came  so  grudgingly  with- 
out real -estate  collateral.  He  had  no  doubt  that  he 
could  place  a  very  considerable  quantity  of  these  lands 
among  the  Germans,  at  a  fair  price;  and  apparently 
it  never  occurred  to  him  that  the  lands  he  was  so  readv 
to  sell  were  already  occupied  by  savage  bands  of  Ind- 
ians ;  or  that  beyond  this  wide  belt  of  hunting-grounds 
were  forts  and  garrisons  so  commanding  as  to  make  an 
attack  on  them  not  less  hazardous  than  was  England's 
task  of  crossino:  the  Atlantic  to  fiofht  the  colonists  along* 
the  sea-coast. 

In  Congress  the  question  of  jurisdiction  over  the 
lands  of  the  North w^ est  did  not  receive  attention  until, 
on  October  15,  1777,  Maryland  proposed  that  ''the 
United  States  in  Congress  assembled  shall  have  the 
sole  and  exclusive  right  and  power  to  ascertain  and  fix 
the  western  boundary  of  such  states  as  claim  to  the 
Mississippi  or  South  Sea,  and  lay  out  the  land  beyond 
the  boundary,  so  ascertained,  into  separate  and  inde- 
pendent states,  from  time  to  time,  as  the  numbers  and 

315 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

circumstances  of  the  peo[)le  may  require."'  Squeezed 
in  between  the  states  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia 
(each  quarrelling  with  the  other  about  their  respective 
territories  while  still  reaching  farther  and  farther  into 
the  West,)  Mm  ry  land  was  in  a  position  to  see  and  to  feel 
how  passion  for  expansion  might  easily  lead  to  other 
Uunmore  wars.  So  far  were  the  other  states  from 
ai^reeiuf;  with  their  sister,  that  Concj^ress  even  took 
occasion  to  provide  in  the  articles  of  Confederation  that 
no  state  should  be  deprived  of  territory  for  the  benetit 
of  the  United  States,  although  the  three  smaller  states 
desired  to  be  allowed  to  share  in  the  proceeds  of  the 
sales  of  Western  lands.' 

In  December,  1779,  while  George  Rogers  Clark,  at  the 
head  of  Virginia  troops  paid  from  the  Virginia  treasury, 
was  conquering  the  Hlinois  country,  Maryland  was  for- 
biddin^:  her  delef^ates  to  ratify  the  Articles  of  Confeder- 
ation  before  the  several  states  should  waive  their  claims 
to  territory  bevond  the  mountains;  for,  said  Maryland, 
Virginia  might  sell  the  territory  thus  gained,  and  by 
making  her  own  taxes  low  might  quickly  drain  Mary- 
land, where  taxes  would  be  higher  and  land  less  cheap.' 
Besides,  a  country  ''  Avrested  from  the  common  enemy 
by  the  blood  and  treasure  of  the  thirteen  states  should 
be  considered  as  a  common  property,  subject  to  he 
parcelled  out  by   Congress   into  free,  convenient,  and 

1  Journals  of  Congress,  from  1774  to  1788,  vol.  ii.,  p.  290. 

'^  Donaldson's  Public  Domain,  p.  61, 

'  lu  his  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  subject  of  the  Northwestern 
cessions,  Dr.  B.  A.  Hinsdale,  of  Mii;l.:<^an  University,  adverts  to  the 
fact  that  "the  fallacy  that  there  is  value  in  wild  lands  appears  to  have 
been  universally  accepted  in  Congress  and  the  states  one  hundred 
years  ago.  ...  In  the  long  run  the  national  government  has  not 
found  the  public  domain  a  source  of  revenue." — The  Old  Northwest 
(New  York,  1899),  pp.197  et  seq. 

316 


THE    NOJITIIWKST    THMUITOKV 

indepondent  governments."  In  the  same  month  of 
May,  1771),  thiit  Maryland  was  pressing  on  Congress 
the  restrictions  she  songht  to  impose  on  Virginia,  the 
latter  state  established  a  land  -  otfice  to  obtain  the 
money  necessary  to  enable  her  to  pay  Clark's  expenses 
and  to  support  his  army  on  its  way  to  Detroit,  a  self- 
imposed  task  indeed,  so  far  as  Virginia  was  concerned, 
but  one  that  served  Maryland  well  by  protecting  her 
frontiers  from  Indian  raids.  In  October  of  the  same 
year,  while  the  British -paid  Indians  were  watching 
every  opportunity  to  wi])e  out  the  slender  Virginia 
settlements  in  the  Kentucky  region,  and  to  recover  the 
valley  of  the  Wabash,  Maryland  secured  the  passage 
by  Congress  of  a  resolution  recommending  that  Virginia 
close  her  land-ollice.  Maryland  absolutely  refused  to 
join  the  Confederation  until  the  land  matter  was  settled  ; 
and  during  the  Revolution  she  stood  technically  as  an 
ally  and  not  as  a  member  of  the  United  States.  Vir- 
ginia entered  a  vigorous  remonstrance  to  this  selfish 
policy  of  her  neighbor,  at  the  same  time  stating  her 
readiness  to  listen  to  any  just  and  reasonable  |)roposi- 
tions  for  removin":  the  ostensible  causes  for  delavintr  the 
ratification  of  the  Confederation.' 

At  this  juncture  the  New  York  Assembly,  acting 
under  the  advice  of  General  Schuyler,  then  one  of  the 
delegates  in  Congress  from  that  state,  passed  an  act 
authorizing  either  an  unreserved  or  a  limited  cession  of 

'  "Maryland's  Influence  upon  Land  Cessions  to  the  United  States," 
by  Herbert  B.  Adams,  Ph.D.,  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in 
Historical  and  Political  Science,  third  series.  This  monograph  is  a 
most  painstaking  presentation  of  a  novel  subject.  The  facts  are  as 
Professor  Adams  states  them  ;  in  his  admiration  for  the  results 
obtained  by  Maryland's  stubbornness,  however,  he  seems  to  me  to  do 
an  unjustice  both  to  Virginia's  sacrifices  and  also  to  her  graceful  ac- 
tion in  ceding  her  territories  to  the  United  States. 

317 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

her  Western  lands,  according  as  her  delegates  should 
deem  it  expedient.     Tlie  western  and  northern  boun- 
daries of  New  York  had  been  lixed  in  the  Quebec  act 
by  her  London  agent,  Edmund  Burke,  who  had  the  bill 
amended  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Commons ;  and 
General   Schuyler  had  ascertained  that  there  was  no 
purpose  in  Congress  to  curtail  these  extensive  limits. 
What  New^  York  gave  up,  therefore,  w^as  a  claim  to  the 
Ohio  country  based  on  ancient  and  unacknowledged 
conquests  by  her  former  allies,  the  Iroquois.     Without 
impugning  New  York's  magnanimity  in  making  a  sur- 
render of  lands  that  Virginia  had  just  conquered,  the 
fact  remains  that  she  had  nothinfj  to  ^i^'e:  tiiis  noth- 
ing  she  gave  so  gracefully  as  to  win  much  credit,  and 
to  exert  no  little  influence  on  other  states  similarly 
circumstanced,  and  also  on  Congress.    To  that  body, 
on  September  6,  1780,  report  w^as  made  on  the  Mary- 
land Instructions,  the  Virginia   Remonstrance,  and  the 
New"  York  Cession ;   and   in   that  report  the  several 
States  were  urged  to  remove  the  embarrassments  re- 
specting the  Western  country  by  a  liberal  surrender  of 
a  portion  of  their  territorial  claims,  and  thus  ^'establish 
the  Federal  Union  on  a  fixed  and  permanent  basis,  and 
on  principles  acceptable  to  all  its  respective  members.'' 
Connecticut,  on  September  10th,  offered  to  give  up  her 
title  to  the  lands  on  the  condition  that  she  retain  juris- 
diction over  the  territory,  a  principle  for  which  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  contended,  possibly  because  he  object- 
ed to  the  formation  of  new  states,  especially  on  the 
frontiers.     A  month   later  Congress  provided  for  the 
sale  of  such  lands  as  should  be  ceded,  and  also  declared 
that  separate  governments  would  be  erected  west  of  the 
mountains,  as  proposed  by  Franklin  in  1755.    Moreover, 
the  necessaiy  and  reasonable  expenses  incurred  by  any 

318 


THE    NOUTIIWKST    TEUUITOUY 

particular  state  in  sulxluing  any  Hritish  ])()sts,  or  in 
maintaining  forts  or  garrisons  within  or  for  llie  defence, 
or  in  acquiring  any  part  of  the  territory  that  might  be 
ceded  or  relinquished  to  the  United  States,  would  be 
reimbursed.  Tiius  a  way  was  opened  for  Virginia  to 
yiehl  her  concpiered  hinds  without  great  iiiiancial  h)ss; 
and  her  services  found  Ccmgressional  acknowledgment. 

Virginia,  the  only  one  of  the  states  which  had  an 
equitable  title,  now  came  forward,  and  on  January  2, 
IT81,  offered  to  cede  her  lands  northwest  of  the  Ohio, 
on  condition  that  her  possession  of  the  lands  south  of 
that  river  be  guaranteed,  and  that  the  claims  of  other 
parties  to  the  North w^estern  lands  be  annulled.  These 
conditions  were  declared  by  Congress  to  be  incompat- 
ible with  the  honor,  interests,  and  peace  of  the  United 
States.  Maryland,  perceiving  that  her  point  against 
territorial  acquisitions  by  individual  states  was  now 
virtually  made,  on  March  1,  1781,  joined  the  Union. 
The  United  States  being  now  an  accomplished  fact, 
suitable  announcement  was  made  to  the  respective 
states,  to  foreign  courts,  and  to  the  army. 

A  committee  of  Congress,  thinking  to  overreach  both 
Virginia  and  Connecticut,  reported  in  favor  of  accept- 
infj  New^  York's  cession,  because  bv  so  doino-  the  United 
States  \vould  acquire  all  the  lands  on  both  sides  of  the 
Ohio,  on  the  theory  that  the  territories  of  the  Six  Na- 
tions and  their  allies  extended  from  Lake  Erie  to  the 
Alleghanies  and  westward  to  the  IMississippi.'  This 
theorv  was  not  true  in  fact  even  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
French  and  Indian  War;  much  less  was  it  true  in  1782.' 

'  Hinsdale  says  that  New  York's  claim  appears  the  most  flimsy  of 
all  the  Western  claims.  Tlie  original  report  in  manuscript  is  preserved 
in  the  Department  of  State. 

■^  Johnson  vs.  Mcintosh,  8  Wheaton. 

319 


THE    NOKTllWKST    UNDEK    THREE    FLAGS 

Moreover,  nations  do  not  derive  jurisdiction  from  sav- 
ages, but  ill  spite  of  them.'  Congress,  as  is  often  tlio 
case,  grasjKid  botli  horns  of  the  dilemmn,  by  accepting 
New  York's  unqualilied  cession,  and  then  asking  Vir- 
ginia to  remove  the  restrictions  from  her  offer.  On 
October  20,  1783,  Virginia,  ever  loyal  to  the  establisii- 
ment  of  the  new  nation,  authorized  iier  delegates  to 
make  the  cession.  As  governor,  Jefferson  had  written 
to  Washington  that  the  state  would  give  up  her  claims 
for  the  sake  of  harmony ;  and  as  a  delegate  in  Congress 
he,  with  his  colleagues,  Samuel  Hardy,  Arthur  Lee,  and 
James  Monroe,  conipleteci  the  transfer.  Virginia,  how- 
ever, made  two  reservations  of  territory — the  first  of 
150,000  acres  promised  to  George  liogers  Clark  and  his 
officers  and  soldiers;  the  second  a  tract  between  the 
Scioto  and  Little  Miami,  to  be  used  as  bounty  lands  for 
the  Virginia  soldiers  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Ten  years  from  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Lexington, 
Massachusetts  ceded  her  Western  lands,  embracing  the 
lower  portions  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin.  At  the 
time  these  lands  were  absolutely  under  British  control, 
although  nominally  they  were  within  the  boundaries  of 
the  United  States.  Kobert  Eogers,  the  New  Ham|> 
shire  Ranger,  had  received  the  surrender  of  Detroit 
from  the  French,  and  Jonathan  Carver,  a  native  of 
Connecticut,  had  once  been  an  unsuccessful  trader  at 
Mackinac;  but  the  only  connection  that  any  resident  of 

*  The  report  also  held  that  the  proclamation  of  1763,  which  fixed 
Virginia's  boundary  at  the  mountains,  and  the  Walpole  grant  were 
still  effective.  This  was  a  flagrant  case  of  injustice  ;  for  Congress 
itself  had  repudiated  tiie  boundaries  of  1763,  and  the  Walpole  grant 
was  clearly  ineffective  when  hostilities  broke  out.  The  Illinois  and 
Wabash  grants  made  to  Lord  Dunmore  and  his  friends  were  brushed 
aside  by  the  committee,  and  were  afterwards  declared  invalid  by  the 
supreme  court. — Johnson  vs.  Mcintosh,  8  Wheaton. 

330 


THE    NOKTHWKST    TEUUITOKV 

Massachusetts  liiid  with  this  territory  was  tlie  vain 
demand  made  by  Colonel  William  Hull  for  the  surren- 
der of  the  posts,  MS  has  been  related.  Connecticut, 
whoso  claims  were  equally  shadowy  witli  those  of 
Massachusetts,  secured  the  best  bargain  of  any  of  tlie 
yielding  states,  by  retaining  in  the  Connecticut  Reserve 
a  tract  of  three  and  a  quarter  million  acres,  over  which 
she  claimed  jurisdiction  till  1800.'  Reserving  five  hun- 
dred thousand  acres  for  those  of  her  citizens  who  had 
suffered  from  tiie  wanton  and  piratical  raids  of  the 
British  on  her  coasts  during  the  Revolution,  Connecti- 
cut sold  the  remainder  for  $1,200,000,  and  devoted  the 
money  to  schools  and  colleges. 

The  moral  of  the  land  cessions  to  the  nation  would 
seem  to  be  this:  Maryland,  by  standing  out  for  the 
national  ownership  and  control  of  the  Northwest, 
brought  about  a  result  of  tremendous  benefit  to  the 
United  States;  New  York,  by  giving  up  early  what  she 
never  had,  won  for  herself  great  credit ;  Virginia  gen- 
erously made  a  d'stinct  sacrifice  of  dearly  conquered 
territory  over  which  she  was  actually  exercising  juris- 
diction ;  Massachusetts  quit-claimed  a  title  she  could  not 
defend;  and  Connecticut  gained  an  empire  to  which 
she  was  not  entitled,  but  which  she  put  to  the  very 
best  of  uses."  Moreover,  from  the  very  nature  of  things, 
Virginia  could  not  have  held  control  over  far-distant 

'  For  a  succinct  statement  as  to  the  rise  of  the  Northwest  Territory 
and  "Western  Reserve,  see  James  A,  Garfield's  Address  before  the 
Historical  Society  of  Geauga  County,  Ohio,  September  16,  1873. — 
"Old  South  Leaflets,"  General  Series,  No.  42. 

'  A  brief  but  of  course  perspicuous  statement  of  the  facts  relative 
to  the  land  cessions,  by  Justin  Winsor  and  Professor  Channing,  is 
given  at  the  beginning  of  their  article  on  "Territorial  Acquisitions 
and  Divisions,"  in  the  appendix  to  vol.  vii.  of  the  Narrative  and  Criti- 
cal Histary  of  America. 

X  301 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDKK    THREE    FLAGS 

territory,  any  more  tlian  Henderson  «fe  Coin})Jiny  could 
have  continued  to  rule  Transylvania  as  a  [)roprietary 
colonv;  or  than  Connecticut  could  have  held  the  West- 
em  Reserve  after  it  became  populated.  Franklin  liad 
foreseen  the  necessity  of  new  jurisdictions  beyond  tiie 
mountains,  even  before  the  French  war  broke  out ;  and 
no  power  could  have  thwarted  this  manifest  destiny. 

How  the  French  discovered  and  possessed  the  North- 
west; iiow  England  wrested  New  France  from  her  an- 
cient enemy ;  how  George  Rogers  Clark  made  partial 
conquest  of  the  territory  for  Virginia;  how  the  treaty- 
makers  won  extensive  boundaries  for  the  new  nation ; 
and  how  at  the  instance  of  Maryland  the  claimant 
state,  and  especially  Virginia,  by  '*  the  most  marked 
instance  of  a  large  and  generous  self-denial,"  made 
cession  of  their  lands  to  the  general  government — all 
these  things  have  been  told.  It  now  remains  to  dis- 
cover how  this  vast  empire,  larger  than  any  country  in 
Europe  save  Russia,  was  to  be  governed  and  peopled. 
For  the  most  part  this  immense  region  was  an  unbroken 
wilderness ;  but  tales  of  the  richness  of  its  alluvial  soil, 
and  its  accessibility  by  means  of  noble  streams  and 
great  inland  seas,  had  caught  the  ear  of  peo})le  made 
restless  by  the  possibilities  opened  up  by  a  magnificent 
peace  attained  after  a  prolonged  and  wasting  war. 

On  the  very  day  that  Virginia  made  cession  of  her 
claims,  Thomas  Jefferson  came  forward  in  Congress  with 
a  plan  for  the  government  of  the  ceded  territory.  There 
were  still  three  obstacles  in  the  way  of  exercising  juris- 
diction :  first,  there  were  controversies  with  Spain  as  to 
the  western  boundary  and  the  navigation  of  the  Missis- 
sippi ;  second,  England  still  held  military  possession  of 
the  frontiers;  and  third,  the  ceded  territory  was  occii 
pied  by  numerous  hostile  tribes  of  Indians.    With  the 

322 


TlIK    iNOUTliWKST    TKUKIToliV 

excoption  of  the  reservations  inado  as  to  territory  by 
Virginia,  ami  as  to  both  territory  Jind  jiirisihi'tioii  by 
Connecticut,  the  United  States  succeeded  alike  to  tlie 
jurisdiction  and  to  the  title  to  unoccupied  hinds.  That 
is  to  say,  the  power  to  grant  vacant  hinds  within  the 
ceded  territory,  a  power  that  had  fornuMly  resided  in 
tiie  crown,  or  the  proprietary  govri-mnents  created  by 
the  crown,  now  passed,  hy  reason  of  the  state  cessions, 
into  the  possession  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States;  and  to  the  geneial  govei'ninent  beh)nged  the 
exchisive  right  to  extinguish,  either  by  |)urchase  or  by 
conquest,  the  Indian  title  of  occupancy.  It  is  important 
to  remember  this  fact,  as  it  is  the  kev  to  the  otherwise 
perplexing  subject  of  Northwestern  affairs.' 

Since  June  15,  1779,  Virginia  liad  been  exercising 
jurisdiction  over  so  much  of  the  Northwest  as  was  in- 
cluded in  Clark's  coiujuest.  John  Todd,  Virginia's  com- 
mandant of  the  County  of  Illinois,  appointed  officers 
and  organized  courts  both  at  Kaskaskia  and  at  Vin- 
cennes.  Todd  and  the  o1ficH3rs  under  him  made  their 
first  business  not  justice  but  land-titles;  and  had  the 
giants  made  by  tliec.e  industrious  officials  been  held 
valid,  probably  there  would  have  been  little  land  left 
for  dis[)osal  by  the  United  States.  Called  to  Virginia 
by  land  matters,  Todd  was  returning  through  Kentucky 
when,  on  August  18,  17S2,  he  was  killed  at  the  battle 
of  Blue  Licks.  The  government  which  he  set  in  mo- 
tion answered  the  demands  of  the  sparse  settlements, 

'  In  Johnson  vs.  Mcintosh,  8  Wheaton,  Cliief-justice  Marshall  niiikcs 
luminous  exposition  of  the  title  to  unoccupied  lands.  He  never  ques- 
tioned Virginia's  title  to  all  the  lands  included  within  her  charter-lines 
from  the  Atlantic  first  to  the  "South  Sea,"  and,  after  the  treaty  of 
1763.  to  the  Mississippi  ;  nor  did  he  think  that  Virginia  was  yielding 
but  u  nominal  title  when  she  made  cession  to  the  United  States. 

323 


THE  NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

and  for  five  years  tlip  French  inhabitants  ^;overne(l 
themselves  according  to  the  ''custom  of  Paris,"  which 
liad  come  to  mean  that  when  disputes  arose,  the  priest, 
the  commandant,  or  some  one  in  authorit}^  was  appealed 
to  for  a  decision.' 

Two  great  principles  were  embodied  in  the  ordinance 
reported  by  Mr.  Jefferson :  first,  the  Xorthwest  Terri- 
tory was  forever  to  remain  a  part  of  tlie  United  States; 
and  second,  that  vast  region,  to  be  divided  into  sovereign 
states,  ^vas  to  be  dedicated  to  freedom.  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son, at  the  age  of  forty-one  years,  had  in  his  mind  no 
thought  of  the  day  when  he  should  inspire  the  Virginia 
and  Kentuckv  resolutions :  at  that  time  his  one  fear 
was  lest,  beguiled  by  England  or  Spain,  the  new  region 
should  break  away  from  the  Union  and  either  set  up  a 
government  of  its  own,  or  else  cast  its  lot  with  the 

^  John  Reynolds,  in  lii3  Pioneer  History  of  Illinois,  says  that  after 
llie  departure  of  Todd,  "  there  was  a  mixture  of  civil  and  British  law 
in  the  country,  administered  by  the  courts,  down  to  1790,  when  Gov- 
ernor St.  Clair  came  to  Kaskaskia  and  ?et  in  motion  the  territorial 
government  under  the  ordinance  or  act  of  Congress  of  1787."  At  Vin- 
cennes,  Todd  apnoiutcd  M.  Legrass  'lieutenant-governor";  but  in 
1787  General  Harmar,  as  civil  governor  and  superintendent  of  Indian 
affairs,  took  charge  of  matters,  either  personally  or  by  deputy. — Law's 
Vincennes,  p.  41. 

David  Todd  and  Hannah  Owen,  his  wife,  were  Scotch-Irish  immi- 
grants who  settled  in  Lancaster  County,  r-^nusylvauia  before  the 
Revolution.  Their  three  sons,  John,  F  jert  and  Levi,  emigrated  to 
Fayette  County,  Kentucky,  in  1778.  L,*i  was  with  Clark  at  ^I'^.skas- 
kia,  and  took  charge  of  the  abusive  Rocheblave,  on  that  prisoner's 
journey  to  Virginia.  His  granddaugliter  became  Mrs.  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

At  Vincennes,  the  judges,  F.  Bosseron,  L.  E.  Deline,  Pierre  Garaelin, 
and  Pierre  Querez  (who  used  his  mark  by  way  of  expedition — or  illit- 
eracy), took  turns  in  leaving  the  bench  so  that  their  fellows  could 
make  grants  of  land  to  one  another.  One  of  these  grants  was  ten 
miles  square,  —See  Law's  l^incennes,  chapter  on  Public  Lands. 

324 


THE    NORTHWEST    TEIUIITORY 

nations  through  whose  territories  the  products  of  the 
rich  and  fertile  country  must  find  an  outlet.  Aofain, 
Jefferson  was  always  a  consistent  opponent  of  slaverj^ 
and  by  providing  that  throughout  the  Northwest  htrman 
bondage  should  cease  after  the  year  1800,  he  hoped  and 
expected  that  within  the  time  named  what  little  slavery 
then  existed  in  the  new"  region  would  be  wiped  out.* 
Having  laid  down  two  such  broad  principles,  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son might  be  permitted  to  indulge  his  well-known  taste 
for  minute  details  and  for  classical  appellations  by  pro- 
viding the  exact  boundaries  for  seven  States,  to  be 
known  as  S.ylvania,  Michigania,  Chersonesus,  x\ssenisipia, 
Metropotamia,  Polypotamia,  and  Polisipia."  Congress, 
however,  recommitted  the  report,  and,  when  it  w^as  again 
submitted,  the  provision  for  the  names  of  tiie  states  was 
stricken  out.  Then  Congress  struck  out  the  provision 
relating  to  slavery,  and  the  ordinance  of  April  23,  1784, 
became  a  law.  As  supplementary  to  the  ordinance, 
Congress,  also,  at  the  instance  of   Jefferson,  provided 

'  The  first  proposition  for  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  Ohio 
country  is  to  be  found  in  a  petition  presented  to  Congress  by  certain 
disbanded  New  England  soldiers,  who  in  1783  asked  for  a  grant  of 
lands  in  that  region.  The  author  of  the  petition  probably  was  Timothy 
Pickering.  Jefferson's  proposition  would  have  excluded  slavery  from 
Kentucky,  whither  the  Virginians  with  their  slaves  were  already 
settling  in  great  numbers  ;  and  for  this  reason  the  slavery  clause  met 
successful  opposition.  The  State  Department  manuscripts  relating 
to  the  Northwest  Territory  show  by  the  amendments  written  on  the 
broadside  reports  how  carefully  the  later  ordinances  were  confined  to 
"the  country  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio." 

2  Washington's  plan  for  the  Northwest  was  first  to  secure  the  Indian 
titles  to  a  portion  of  the  territory  and  erect  a  state  that  would  include 
the  region  from  Pennsylvania  to  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Miami,  and 
stretching  northward  to  include  Detroit.  But  for  the  necessity  of 
including  Detroit,  he  would  have  preferred  smaller  boundaries,  as  less 
likely  to  meet  Indian  opposition. — See  Sparks's  Washington,  vol.  viil. 
p.  483. 

325 


TUE    NOIITIIWEST    UNDER   THREE    FLAGS 

for  a  system  of  government  surveys,  by  which  the  lands 
were  to  be  divided  into  townships  six  miles  square;  and 
also  provided  that  the  surveyed  lands  should  be  the 
first  to  be  offered  for  sale.  Under  this  rectangular  sys- 
tem, the  whole  Western  country  has  been  regularly  laid 
off ;  the  old  ^'  tomahawk  rights ''  found  no  place  ;  and  as 
a  consequence  there  were  no  overlapping  claims.' 

The  subject  of  slavery  in  the  Xorthwest  would  not 
down.  On  March  16,  1785,  Mr.  King  brought  up  the 
subject  by  a  motion  to  refer  to  the  committee  of  the 
whole  House  a  proposition  totally  preventing  slavery  in 
the  Xorthwest,  and  the  motion  prevailed,  but  there  the 
matter  rested."  During  the  first  half  of  1786,  Mr.  Mon- 
roe struggled  with  the  question  of  a  temporary  govern- 
ment, but  without  accomplishing  results.  In  September, 
however,  a  new  committee,  consisting  of  Mr.  Johnson  of 
Connecticut,  Mr.  Pinckney  of  South  Carolina,  Mr.  Smith 
of  New  York,  Mr.  Dane  of  Massachusetts,  and  ^Ir. 
Henry  of  Maryland  e:  sayed  the  task,  and  on  the  26th 
of  April,  1787,  reported  "An  ordinance  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Western  Territor3\"  On  the  10th  of  May 
this  colorless  measure  was  ordered  to  a  third  reading; 
but  Con  ogress,  bein^:  dissatisfied,  on  Julv  9th  referred  it 
to  a  new  committee,  made  up  of  Mr.  Carrington  of  Vir- 
ginia, Mr.  Dane  of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  K.  H.  Lee  of 
Virginia,  Mr.  Kean  of  South  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Smith 

'  x\9  Jefferson  reported  the  bill  the  townships  were  to  be  ten  miUs 
square.  On  motion  of  Mr.  Grayson,  of  Virginia,  supported  by  Mr. 
IMouroe,  the  size  was  reduced  to  six  miles  square,  and  on  May  20, 
1785,  tlie  bill  was  passed. — See  Thomas  Donaldson's  Public  Domain, 
pp.  178.  197. 

^  This  action  on  Mr.  King's  part  was  the  result  of  a  letter  written 
to  him  by  Timothy  Pickering,  who  implored  him  to  make  one  more 
effort  for  the  exclusion  of  slavery,  before  the  constitutions  to  be  adopted 
by  the  new  states  should  make  such  exclusion  impossible. 

326 


THE    NORTHWEST    TEURITORY 

of  New  York — a  majority  being  new  members.  x\fter 
a  deliberation  of  fortv-ei<rht  hours  the  committee  broufjht 
in  a  radically  new  measure,  which,  after  being  debated 
and  amended  on  June  12th,  was  passed  by  a  unanimous 
vote  on  the  13th.  The  amendment  adverted  to  was  the 
provision  prohibiting  slavery,  to  which  was  attached  a 
proviso  permitting  the  reclamation  of  fugitive  slaves. 
]\[r.  Dane  of  Massachusetts  proposed  the  amendment, 
and  it  was  agreed  to  with  but  one  dissenting  vote.  On 
the  same  day,  in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  a  pro- 
vision was  agreed  to  giving  the  slave-owning  states  a 
representation  in  Congress  based  on  the  whole  number 
of  free  persons  (including  those  bound  to  service  for  a 
term  of  years,  and  excluding  Indians  not  taxed)  plus 
three-Jifths  of  all  other  persons. 

Four  davs  covers  the  lemslative  historv  of  the  "im- 
mortal ''  Ordinance  of  1787  for  the  government  of  the 
territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio  —  legislation  compa- 
rable only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  was  beino^  written  at  the  same  time  in  a  neifjh- 
boring  city.  In  his  tremendous  reply  to  liayne,  Daniel 
Webster  doubted  ''  whether  one  single  law  of  any  law- 
giver, ancient  or  modern,  had  produced  effects  of  more 
distinct,  marked,  and  lasting  character  than  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787."  Senator  Hoar,  in  his  splendid  tribute' 
to  the  founders  of  the  Northwest,  speaks  of  the  ordi- 
nance as  belonging  with  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence and  the  Constitution — "  one  of  the  three  title- 
deeds  of  American  constitutional  libertv."  Juds^e 
Cooley,  after  a  life  spent  under  its  beneficent  influ- 
ences, stamped  it  as  "  immortal  for  the  grand  results 

'  George  F.  Hoar's  oration  at  the  centennial  of  the  founding  of  the 
Northwest  at  Marietta,  Ohio,  April  7,  1888  (Worcester,  Massachusetts, 
1895),  p.  40. 

327 


tup:  northwest  under  three  flags 

which  have  followed  from  its  adoption,  not  less  than 
for  the  wisdom  and  far-seeing  statesmanship  that  con- 
ceived  and  gave  form  to  its  provisions.  No  charter  of 
government  in  the  history  of  any  people,"  continues 
the  great  jurist,  "  has  so  completely  withstood  the  tests 
of  time  and  experience ;  it  had  not  a  temporary  adap- 
tation to  a  particular  emergency,  but  its  principles  were 
for  all  time,  and  worthy  of  acceptance  under  all  circum- 
stances. It  has  been  the  fitting  model  for  all  subse- 
quent territorial  government  in  America."  ' 

This  monumental  compact  between  thirteen  existing 
states,  and  five  states  yet  to  be  born,  provided  for  that 
freedom  of  religion  w^ithout  which  Virginia's  growth 
had  been  retarded ;  for  the  inviolability  of  contracts,  a 
principle  then  being  fought  out  in  Shay's  rebellion ;  for 
the  fair  and  just  treatment  of  the  Indians,  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  private  wars  against  the  savages ;  for  the  per- 
manence in  the  Union  of  the  States  to  be  created  within 
the  new  territory ;  for  the  absolute  freedom  of  all  their 
waters  and  portages ;  for  the  perpetual  encouragement 
of  schools  and  the  means  of  education ;  and  for  the 
freedom  of  every  person  within  the  territory  excepting 
fugitive  slaves  from  the  original  states.  Possibly  to 
many  of  those  who  voted  for  the  measure  some  of 
its  provisions  appeared  to  be  "  glittering  generalities  " ; 
yet  not  even  the  slaver}^  provision  itself  was  of  more 
substantial  benefit  to  the  Xorthwest  than  has  been  and 
still  is  the  pregnant  sentence:  "Keligion,  morality,  and 
knowledge  being  necessary  to  good  government  and  the 
happiness  of  mankind,  schools  and  the  means  of  edu- 
cation shall  forever  be  encourao^ed."  Those  twenty- 
four  words  were  to  the  Northwest  at  once  the  charter 


*  Cooley's  Michtgan,  p.  127. 
828 


THE    NORTHWEST    TEURITOIIV 

• 

and  the  endowment  of  that  novel  and  wide-spread  sys- 
tem of  public  education,  beginning  at  the  primary  school 
and  extending  through  the  university  and  professional 
schools,  which  speedily  created  in  the  new  West  a  body 
of  educational  institutions  to  take  the  place  of  the  en- 
dowed academies  and  colleges  of  the  East.  P'or  more 
than  a  century  that  phrase  has  been  both  the  incen- 
tive of  the  friend  of  learning  in  urging  and  the  justifi- 
cation of  the  penurious  legislator  in  granting  those 
appropriations  from  the  public  treasury  by  means  of 
which  the  Northwest  has  provided  herself  with  a  well- 
educated  body  of  citizens.  Taking  the  ordinance  in  its 
entirety,  it  would  seem  as  if  the  nation,  wearied  by  its 
own  struggles  to  obtain  freedom  from  the  laws  and  cus- 
toms of  the  past,  bad  determined  that  its  children 
should  step  forth  into  the  world  free  from  their  very 
birth. 

Who  shall  trace  the  origin  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787? 
Like  a  tree,  its  roots  were  deep  down  in  a  free  soil,  and 
its  leaves  drank  nourishment  from  an  air  filled  with  the 
makings  of  constitutions.  Jefferson  had  planted,  and 
Monroe  and  Euf us  King  had  watered,  the  tender  plant. 
The  vital  force,  however,  came  from  neither  earth  nor 
air;  from  neither  the  planting  nor  the  nurture  of  the 
fathers  of  the  republic.  Up  to  the  6th  day  of  July,  1787, 
the  government  of  the  Northwest  had  been  almost 
purely  an  academic  question ;  on  that  day  it  became 
the  most  tano^ible  of  all  the  measures  before  Cons^ress. 
This  marvellous  chancre  was  wrought  bv  Manasseh  Cut- 
ler,  a  Massachusetts  minister,  who  appeared  in  Xew 
York  with  a  proposition  to  buy  a  million  dollars'  worth 
of  Western  lands.  The  coming  of  Cutler  signified  that 
both  the  men  and  the  money  were  at  hand  to  develop 

the  Northwest,  and  that  the  time  had  come  to  legislate 

329 


TllK    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

to  meet  not  a  theory  but  a  condition.  The  undertakinn* 
had  been  lon<^  in  preparation,  and  the  men  behind  it 
were  of  proved  ability  and  worth.' 

Into  the  camp  at  Cambridge,  just  after  the  battles  of 
Concord  and  Lexington,  came  Rufus  Putnam,  a  tall, 
sturdy,  self-reliant  but  modest  lieutenant-colonel  of  a 
Worcester  Count}',  Massachusetts,  militia  regiment.    At 

'  The  literature  on  the  subject  of  tlie  authorship  of  the  Ordinance 
of  1787  is  voluminous,  and  the  majority  of  writers  give  the  credit  al- 
most exclusively  to  Cutler.  This  list  comprises,  among  others,  Senator 
Hoar,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  and  the  late  Dr.  William  F.  Poole.  In 
controversial  historical  literature  of  recent  times  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  more  ruthless  assault  on  author  and  theory  than  Dr.  Poole 
made  on  the  argument  of  the  lute  Henry  A.  Chancy,  attributing  the 
authorship  of  the  measure  most  largely  to  Nathan  Dane.  Dr.  Poole's 
address  before  the  American  Historical  Society  in  1888  sets  forth  his 
theory  that  Cutler  brought  the  ordinance  from  New  England  and 
forced  it  on  the  committee  of  Congress  as  a  prerequisite  to  the  land 
purchase  he  proposed.  Mr.  Frederick  D.  Stone,  librarian  of  the 
Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  in  a  calm  review  of  the  different 
arguments  {The  Ordinance  of  MdTi),  reaches  the  conclusion  that  there 
is  no  evidence  to  show  that  Cutler  had  anything  to  do  with  the  essen- 
tial features  of  the  measure.  On  the  contrary,  he  went  to  New  York 
prepared  to  purchase  lands  under  the  Ordinance  of  1784,  provided  he 
could  make  suitable  arrangements  with  the  Boanl  of  Treasury.  Mr. 
Stone  gives  Dane  the  credit  for  making  up  the  bill  from  the  existing 
law,  and  taking  the  opportunity  on  the  floor  of  the  Hou.se  to  insert 
the  slavery  clause  with  a  proviso  satisfactory  to  the  South.  After  ^l 
careful  study  of  the  diary  and  letters  of  Cutler,  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment MSS.,  and  of  the  documents  in  the  library  of  the  I^Iassachusetts 
Historical  Society,  I  am  convinced  Cutler's  appearance  with  the  money 
to  purchase,  and  the  organization  to  people,  the  Western  lands  made 
it  possible  to  secure  from  Congress  a  fundamental  law  in  accord  with 
the  repeatedl)'  expressed  desires  of  the  New  England  promoters.  So 
long  as  slavery  was  prohibited  only  north  of  the  Ohio,  the  Southern 
members  might  well  have  acquiesced  in  that  provision,  because  they 
might  have  foreseen  what  actually  came  to  pass — that  the  prohibitiou 
of  slavery  north  of  the  Ohio  would  hasten  the  settlement  of  Kentucky 
and  the  Western  lands  of  the  Southern  States,  and  would  retard  emi- 
gration to  the  country  north  of  the  great  river. 

330 


ItUFUS  PUTNAM 


^t^c-3*at^^fe.r^^^5^_^_-;^^-^ 


GKXF-.HAL    lU'FJ  S  PUTNAM's   LAXD-OFFTCE 


THE    NOUTinVEST    TEUIMTUUV 

the  age  of  nineteen  he  had  entered  the  old  French  war, 
and  at  the  a<^e  of  thirty-seven  he  had  acquired  such  a 
reputation  as  an  engineer  that  Washington  fixed  upon 
hira  as  the  man  to  construct  the  works  that  were  to 
force  the  evacuation  of  Boston.  By  one  of  those  chances 
which  are  the  raw  material  of  genius,  this  self-taught 
engineer,  while  pondering  over  the  difficulties  presented 
hy  frozen  ground,  stumbled  on  Mnlhrs  F'uld  En(jineet\ 
and  from  the  book  learned  how  to  make  a  '* chandelier" 
of  timber  and  bundles  of  brush.  On  the  morning  of 
March  5,  1776,  Sir  William  Howe  saw  himself  hemmed 
in  by  long  lines  of  intrenchments  framed  in  a  night,  and 
so  extensive  that  a  month  would  scarcely  have  sufficed 
his  army  to  build  them.  There  was  no  escape  but  in 
evacuation ;  and  as  the  result  of  his  labors,  Rufus  Put- 
nam had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  cousin  Israel,  at 
the  head  of  the  first  victorious  army,  march  through  the 
winding  streets  of  Boston.  Such  was  the  first  great 
triumph  of  one  whom  Washington  called  the  ablest  en- 
gineer officer  of  the  w^ar,  whether  American  or  French- 
man ;  his  second  notable  work  was  fortifvin^]:  West 
Point. 

The  Revolution  ended,  Putnam  returned  to  the  little 
Rutland,  Massachusetts,  farm-house,  that  to-day  stands 
as  a  memorial  of  him,  there  to  scheme  and  plan  the 
building,  not  of  fortifications  but  of  a  state — '*a  new 
state  westward  of  the  Ohio,"  as  Timothv  Pickerino: 
puts  it.'     In  1783  Putnam  sent  to  Washington  a   pe- 

^  Senator  George  F.  Hoar  has  told  the  story  of  Putnam  in  his  ora- 
tion at  the  Marietta  centennial  ;  and  also  in  liis  address  on  "Rufus 
Putnam,  Founder  and  Father  of  Ohio,"  on  tlie  occasion  of  placing  a 
tablet  to  the  memory  of  Putnam,  upon  his  dwelling-liouse  in  Rutland, 
September  17,  1898.  I  am  much  indebted  to  Senator  Hoar  for  copies 
of  these  excellent  examples  of  his  eloquence  and  scholarship. 

331 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

tition  to  Congress  signed  by  288  oflicors,  wlio  prayed 
for  the  location  and  siirvev  of  the  Western  kinds;  and 
the  next  year  Washington  wi'ites  his  ohl  friend  that  ho 
has  tried  in  vain  to  have  Congress  take  action.  Ap- 
pointed  one  of  the  surveyors  of  the  Northwestern  hinds, 
Putnam  sent  General  Tuj)per  in  hijs  stead  ;  and  on  the 
return  of  the  hitter  from  Pittsburg,  the  two  spent  a  long 
January  night  in  framing  a  call  to  officers  and  soldiers 
of  the  war,  and  all  other  good  citizens  of  Massachusetts 
who  desired  to  find  new  homes  on  the  Ohio.  On  March 
4,1786,  the  Ohio  Company  was  formed  at  the  ^^  Bunch  of 
Grapes"  tavern  in  Boston;  and  Putnam,  Keverend  Ma- 
nasseh  Cutler,  and  General  Samuel  II.  Parsons  were  made 
the  directors.'  The  winter  was  spent  in  perfecting  the 
plan ;  then  Parsons  was  sent  to  New  York  to  secure  a 
grant  of  lands  and  the  passage  of  an  act  for  a  govern- 
ment. He  failed.  Putnam  now  turned  to  his  other 
fellow -director.  Cutler.  On  July  6,  1787,  the  polished 
and  courtly  ex-cha[)lain,  and  the  greatest  naturalist  of 
his  dav  in  America,  entered  the  chamber  where  Con- 
gress  was  sitting,  and  in  his  most  felicitous  manner  laid 
before  the  statesmen  his  proposition.  lie  promised 
much,  and  he  demanded  much.  The  restless  veterans  of 
the  war  were  to  be  provided  for ;  a  large  portion  of  the 
bothersome  and  burdensome  public  debt  was  to  be  ex- 
tinguished ;  this  sale  of  lands  would  lead  to  others,  and 
the  value  of  all  would  be  increased ;  the  frontiers  of 
Virginia  and  Maryland  would  be  protected  against  the 
savages;  and  Spain  and  England  would  intrigue  in  vain 

'  xV  copy  of  "The  Articles  of  an  Association  !)y  the  name  of  the 
Ohio  Company,  printed  in  Worcester.  Mass.,  by  Isaiah  Thomas,  1786  " 
is  preserved  in  the  library  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 
Article  II.  recites  that  the  purchase  of  lands  is  to  be  made  under  the 
law  of  May  20.  1785,  "or  other  legislation." 

333 


THE    NORTHWEST    TEUUITOUV 

for  the  control  of  tlio  Western  country.  In  return  lie 
asked  for  a  free  soil,  for  tlie  promotion  of  education, 
and  for  the  mnchinery  of  government. 

Having  secured  the  passage  of  tlie  Ordinance,  Dr. 
Cutler  next  turned  his  attention  to  a  law  tor  the  sale 
of  lands.  The  first  committee  having  been  made?  u|) 
largely  from  the  Committee  on. Lands,  there  was  little 
difficulty  in  securing  a  favorable  report,  for  the  Ordi- 
nance had  been  based  on  the  land  scheme.  In  order  to 
carry  the  project  through  Congress,  however,  it  was 
expedient  to  parcel  out  the  otiices.  General  Parsons, 
one  of  the  directors  of  the  Ohio  Company,  having  been 
selected  privately  for  the  office  of  governor,  Cutler 
shifted  him  to  a  judgeship ;  the  governorship  was 
promised  to  General  Arthur  St.  Clair,  the  President 
of  Congress;  and  Major  Sargent  was  slated  for  the 
place  of  secretary.  Ten  days  after  the  passage  of  the 
ordinance,  the  land-contract  measure  was  adopted;  but 
inasmuch  as  its  provisions  were  not  satisfactory  to  Dr. 
Cutler  he  suggested  modifications,  and  enforced  his 
views  by  a  threat  to  leave  New  York  unless  they  were 
acceded  to.  Again  he  was  successful,  and  on  July  27 
he  found  himself  the  possessor  of  a  grant  of  five  million 
acres  of  land,  one  half  for  the  Ohio  Company,  and  one 
half  for  a  private  speculation  which  became  known  as 
the  Scioto  Purchase.  Congress  on  its  ])art  was  able 
to  retire  some  three  and  a  half  millions  of  outstand- 
ing script,  and  to  reduce  the  public  debt  by  that 
amount. 

While  the  officers  of  the  new  territor}'^  were  virtual- 
ly settled  upon  at  this  time,  it  was  not  until  October 
5th  that  Congress  elected  Arthur  St.  Clair  governor ; 
James  M.  Yarnum,  Samuel  Holden  Parsons,  and  John 

Armstrong  judges  ;  and  Winthrop  Sargent,  secretary ; 

333 


TIIK    NOUTinVEST    UNDER    TllUEE    FLAGS 

8ubso(juently  .John  Cloves  Symmes  took  tlic  place  of  Mr, 
Arrastron<^,  who  declined  the  appointment.' 

On  Au;,'iist  21»th,  Dr.  Cutler  met  the  directors  and 
agents  of  the  Ohio  Company  at  the  *'  I*unch  of  (i rapes" 
to  repoit  that  he  had  made  a  contract  witii  the  Board 
of  Treasury  for  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  lands  at  a 
net  price  of  seventy-five  cents  an  acre;  that  the  lands 
were  to  be  located  on  the  Ohio,  between  the  Seven 
Ranges  platted  under  the  direction  of  Congress  and  the 
Virginia  lands;  that  lands  had  been  reserved  by  the 
government  for  school  and  university  purj)oses,  accord- 
ing to  the  Massachusetts  plan ;  and  that  bounty  lands 
might  be  located  within  the  tract.  The  next  day  the 
plat  of  a  city  on  the  Muskingum  was  settled  upon,  and 
proj)osals  for  saw^-mill  and  corn-mill  sites  were  invited 
from  prospective  settlers."  So  it  happened  that  the 
future  State  of  Ohio  was  planned  in  a  Boston  tavern. 

"  It  would  give  you  pain,  and  me  no  pleasure,"  writes 
the  founder  of  Ohio  to  his  co-laborer,  Dr.  Cutler,  ''  to 
detail  our  march  over  the  mountains,  or  our  delays  on 
account  of  bad  weather,  or  other  misfortunes."  A  num- 
ber of  ship-carponters  from  Dan  vers  were  sent  ahead; 
but  when,  on  the  14th  of  February,  1778,  the  main  party 
of  New  England  })ilgriras  arrived  at  the  Youghiogheny 
they  found  no  boats  and  no  boards  or  planks  to  build 
any,  no  persons  able  even  to  hollow  out  a  canoe,  the  saw- 
mill frozen  up,  and  small-pox  prevailing.  The  ablest 
engineer  of  the  Kevolutionary  army,  however,  was  not 
to  be  discouraged.  On  April  1st  the  party  embarked,  and 
seven  days  later  they  ran  upon  the  banks  of  the  Muskin- 
gum the  prows  of  the  forty -five  ton  galley  Advent  ure^ 

'  In  July,  1789,  the  first  Congress  of  the  United  States  gave  its 
sanction  to  the  new  government. 
'■^  Life  of  Beverend  Manasseh  Cutler,  vol.  i.,  p.  321. 

334 


H  ♦ 


MANASSKH    (  I  il.KK 


THE    NORTHWEST    TEUUlTuRY 

afterwards  appropriately  rechristened  the  Mayjfoiver; 
also  the  Adeljjhia,  a  three- ton  ferry  ;  and  three  log 
canoes.  First  to  greet  them  was  the  famous  Captain 
Pipe,  a  Delaware  of  uuILnited  curiosity,  who  was  quite 
accustomed  to  speak  his  mind  plainly  to  white  men, 
whether  Englishmen  or  Americans.'  With  the  Indians 
came  the  garrison  from  Fort  llarmar  to  give  a  Conti- 
nental welcome  to  the  home-makers ;  and  speedily  all 
was  activity.  Lands  were  cleared,  a  hundred  aci'es  were 
;  L.  *  :'*  w^th  corn,  and  maple-sugar  making  added  jol- 
..  -•■  u.  '  e  toil.  The  site  selected  for  the  town  was  a 
lev  1  ih'  ^'  feet  above  the  Muskingum  and  on  the  eastern 
side  of  that  stream  at  its  junction  with  the  Ohio,  where 
once  the  Mound-builders  had  made  a  resting-place,  set- 
ting up  an  arrow  factory  and  heaping  up  piles  of  dirt 
for  scientists  to  battle  over  to  this  day.  For  a  name, 
Marietta  was  chosen  by  way  of  compliment  to  Marie 
Antoinette,  gracious  friend  of  the  struggling  colonies. 
"We  of  to-day  laugh  at  tiie  pseudo-classicism  of  times 
that  rejected  the  unpronounceable  Indian  names  in  fa- 
vor of  Latinized  appellations  ;  but  the  Campus  Martins, 
the  Via  Sacra,  the  Capitolium,  and  the  Quadranaon  of 
Marietta,  like  the  names  under  which  Jefferson  would 
have  smothered  the  states  of  the  Northwest,  soon  disap- 
peared, le.  ing  as  the  memorials  of  that  period  an  archi- 
tecture, botn  public  and  domestic,  that  is  pure,  simple, 
graceful,  and  stately.  They  were  not  pedants,  but  ideal- 
ists, wiio  named  the  seat  of  their  backwoods  university 
Athens! 

On  the  morning  of  the  9th  l  July  the  boom  of  a 
boat's  gun  awoke  the  echoes  between  the  forest-lined 

'  Had  the  settlers  kj^wn  that  Captain  Pipe  was  one  of  the  mur- 
derers of  Crawford,  his  greetings  would  not  have  been  so  warmly 
reciprocated. 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDEU    THUEE    FLAGS 

banks  of  the  broad  Ohio,  and  soon  a  barge,  hurried  by 
the  swift  current  and  twelve  stalwart  watermen,  turned 
into  the  Muskingum  and  swung  up  to  the  rude  landing, 
place  at  Marietta.  The  Governor  of  tlie  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory had  arrived  at  the  capital.  It  was  a  great  (hiy  for 
the  ne>v  colon v  ;  and  with  the  true  Xew^  Ent^landers' 
love  of  dignity  and  order,  they  were  determined  to  make 
the  most  of  it.  The  Revolutionarv  veteran  General 
Harmar  and  his  handful  of  soldiers  from  the  fort  were 
drawn  up  in  line,  the  burnished  gun-barrels  glistening  in 
the  July  sun  ;  tiiere  too  was  Eufus  Putnam,  unwearied 
surveyor,  matchless  engineer,  veteran  soldier  and  founder 
of  the  great  state  that  was  to  be ;  and  Judge  Yarnuni, 
who,  apostrophizing  the  new  governor  in  sonorous 
periods  on  the  nation's  birthday,  had  called  on  the 
gently  flowing  Ohio  to  **  bear  him,  oh  bear  him  safely 
to  this  anxious  spot,"  and  on  the  "  beautiful,  transparent 
Muskingum  to  swell  at  the  moment  of  his  approach  and 
reflect  no  objects  but  of  pleasure  and  delight  I"  Amidst 
the  ruffle  of  drums  and  the  booming  of  the  federal  salute 
of  fourteen  guns,  the  commanding  figure  of  Governor 
Arthur  St.  Clair  stepped  from  the  barge  of  state,  close- 
ly followed  by  Judge  Parsons  and  Secretary  Sargent. 
Attended  by  the  tow^s- people,  they  advanced  to  the 
Campus  Martins,  where  the  secretary  read  the  ordi- 
nance and  the  commissions  of  the  officers,  and  the  gover- 
nor expatiated  to  his  New  England  hearers  on  the  ad- 
vantao-es  of  oood  o^overnment!  Great  results  often 
follow  upon  unheralded  beginnings ;  but  there  was  no 
lack  of  appreciation  of  tiiis  auspicious  occasion.  "Dar- 
ing the  aJdress  of  his  Excellency,"  writes  an  eye-wit- 
ness, '•  a  profound  veneration  for  the  elevated  station  and 
exalted  benevolence  of  the  speaker;  the  magnitude  of 
the  subject;  the  high  importance  of  the  occasion;  the 


o»> 


no 


GENEUAL   AirniUU   ST.  CLAlll 


THE    NOUTITWKST    TKUUITOUV 

immense  consequences  resultin*^  ;  the  <^lory,  the  grandeur 
of  the  new  world  unfoldin;^- ;  lieaven  and  earth  approv- 
ing, called  forth  all  the  manly  emotions  of  the  heart." 

Indeed,  tlie  good  people  of  Marietta  had  I'eason  to 
he  proud  of  their  new  oflicials,  and  particularly  of  their 
governor.  Born  in  Caithness,  of  an  ancient  Scotch 
family,  the  early  death  of  his  pleasure-loving  father  iiad 
left  Arthur  St.  Clair  to  the  care  of  a  mother  as  intelli- 
gent as  she  was  devoted  ;  and  after  a  course  of  study  at 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  a  short  indenture  as  a 
student  ol  medicine,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  he  was 
commissioned  an  ensign  in  the  lioyal  Americans,  the 
regiment  of  his  friends  Henry  iiouquet  and  Ilaldimand. 
With  Amherst,  in  the  siege  of  Louisburg,  he  had  earned 
a  lieutenancy  even  before  he  climbed  the  Plains  of 
Abraham,  and,  inspired  bj^  the  undaunted  courage  of 
Wolfe,  had  caught  up  the  colors  from  the  hand  of  their 
dvinof  defender  and  had  borne  them  where  the  battle 
raged  fiercest.  From  war  to  love  is  the  shortest  of 
steps;  and  no  sooner  had  the  British  ships  appeared 
before  Quebec,  bringing  the  aid  that  made  the  romantic 
New  France  into  the  prosaic  Canada,  than  the  dashing 
vouno:  soldier  betook  himself  to  Boston  to  marrv  Phoebe 
Bayard,  the  niece  of  Governor  James  Bowdoin. 

With  the  remains  of  his  own  fortune  added  to  the 
abundant  patrimony  of  his  wife,  St.  Clair  purchased  in 
the  beautiful  Ligonier  valley  a  large  estate  to  add  to 
the  lands  he  had  located  under  the  king's  grant ;  and 
there,  in  the  year  after  Bouquet's  victory  over  the  Ind- 
ians at  Bushv  Run,  St.  Clair  settled.  He  built  a  substan- 
tial  house  and  a  grist-mill,  became  a  state  surveyor,  a 
justice  of  the  court  of  quarter-sessions,  a  member  of  the 
Proprietary,  and  afterwards  recorder  of  deeds,  clerk  of 
the  orphans'  court,  and  prothonotary.  In  his  capacitj'' 
Y  337 


THE  NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

as  a  Pennsylvania  magistrate,  St.  Clair  had  Lord  Dun- 
inore's  commandant,  Di'.  Conolly,  arrested  and   placed 
in  jail  for  usurpation  at  Pittsburg,  and  when  his  lord- 
ship demanded  that  Si.  Clair  be  punished,  Governor 
Penn  told  the  Governor  of  Virginia  that  he  was  dicta- 
torial.     At  the  outbreak  of  the  Pe volution  St.  Claii* 
acted  as  secretary  at  tiie  Indian  council  hM  at  Fort 
Pitt,  and  while  there  engaged  between  four  and  five 
hundred  young  men  for  an  expedition  against  Detroit. 
Delayed  for  the  want  of  powder,  an  application  was 
made  to  Congress,  only  to  receive  the  reply  that  Ar- 
nold  would  soon  capture  Quebec,  and  Detroit  would 
fall  with  the  capital,  so  the  expedition  would  be  unnec- 
essary I     The  difference  between  St.  Clair  and  George 
Kogers  Clark  was  that  Clark  got  the  powder.     Mean- 
time St.  Clair's  Boston  relatives  had  not  forgotten  him. 
In  December,  1775,  President  Hancock  called  him  to 
Philadelphia;    he   was  instructed   to  raise  a  regiment 
and  start  for  Quebec;  he  did  so,  and  arrived  just  in 
time  to  cover  Arnold's  retreat.     Elected  a  brio^adier  bv 
Congress,  St.  Clair  joined  Washington  on  his  retreat 
through  Kew  Jersey,  and  until  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion  was  an  active,  faithful,  and  even  brilliant  com- 
mander.    Returning  to  civil  life  impoverished  in  fort- 
une, he  was  chosen  to  the  Continental  Congress,  over 
the  last  session  of  which  he  presided.     x\nd  now,  at  the 
age  of  fifty -four,  his  chestnut  hair  but  little  touched 
with  white,  and  his  polished  manners  winning   favor 
from  every  one  on  whom  his  blue-gray  eyes  smiled,  he 
had  come  to  preside  at  the  making  of  a  state. 

His  companion  '  in  office  were  not  unworthy  asso- 
ciates. Winthrop  Sargent  had  been  born  in  rocky 
Gloucester  thirty-five  years  before,  had  graduated  from 
Harvard  College,  had  serv^ed  through  the    Revolution 

338 


'A 


-1 

X 
'X 


S 


; 

1; 
-, 

i;  1"            ■      .,  •■ 

j 

1  :  : 

THE    NUUTliWKST    TEUUITUUV 

as  captain  of  artillery  and  as  major  on  stall  duty,  had 
tranipcu  through  the  country  on  the  upper  Ohio  wliile 
survevint''  one  of  the  Seven  Raufjes  laid  out  in  ITSO 
by  order  of  Congress,  and  now  was  entering  on  a  long 
and  honorable  career  in  civil  life.  Like  Sargent,  Judge 
Samuel  11  olden  Parsons  was  a  Harvard  graduate,  and 
had  seen  distinguished  service  in  the  llevolution,  rising 
to  the  grade  of  major-general,  lie  had  been  active  in 
promoting  the  interests  of  the  Ohio  Company,  and,  as 
has  been  said,  was  Cutler's  original  choice  for  govern- 
or. Unfortunately  for  the  colony  this  sagacious  and 
influential  founder  was  drowned  the  next  vear  at  the 
rapids  of  the  Big  Beaver.  The  second  judge,  James  M. 
Varnum,  a  Dracut  man,  a  brigadier-general  at  twenty- 
eight,  a  member  of  the  Continental  C(jngress  at  thirty- 
one,  and  a  judge  at  thirty-nine,  was  one  of  the  direc- 
tors of  the  company  during  the  remaining  six  months 
of  his  short  life.' 

Either  human  ingenuity  never  devised  a  more  con- 
tentious form  of  government  than  that  known  as  ''  The 
Governor  and  Judges,"  or  else  Revolutionary  officers 
were  not  the  best  stutf  out  of  which  to  make  executive 
and  judicial  officials.'  No  sooner  had  the  judges  begun 
to  make  a  patchwork  of  pieces  from  the  laws  of  the 
states — as  they  were  restricted  to  doing — than  they  of 
necessity  began  to  stretch  their  quilt  by  enacting  origi- 

'Rufus  Putnam  succeeded  Varnum,  servinoj  until  1796,  wlien  lie 
was  made  surveyor-general,  and  was  succeeded  by  .Joseph  Gillman,  of 
Point  Harmar.  Parsons  was  succeeded  by  George  Turner,  who  re- 
signed in  1796,  Return  Jonathan  Meigs  succeeding  him.  No  other 
ciianges  were  madr  before  Ohio  became  a  state.— See  St.  Clair  Papers, 
vol.  i.,  p.  145. 

•General  William  Hull  was  so  badgered  by  the  judges  of  Michigan 
Territo.y  that  it  is  small  wonder  he  lost  all  vigor  and  stamina  before 
llie  War  of  1812. 

339 


Till::    NOJvTllWEST    UNDKit    TliUEJ::    FLAGS 

nal  legislation;  and  wlien  the  cautious  govornor  would 
have  interposed  his  veto,  they  told  him  he  had  no  such 
prerogative  under  the  law.  To  the  governor  this  seemed 
to  smack  of  tyranny.  In  his  striclures  on  the  militia  hill, 
(TcniM'al  St.  Clair  made  it  ])lain  to  Major-general  Par 
sons  and  Brigadier -general  Varnum  that  they  knew 
very  little  about  military  matters;  but  a  militia  law  was 
passed,  as  were  also  laws  establishing  courts,  punishing 
profanity,  regulating  mari'iages  and  ministers,  and  pro- 
viding for  a  Christian  Sabbath.' 

Colonel  John  May,  of  lioston,  one  of  the  members  of 
the  Ohio  Company,  has  left  on  record  a  graphic  descrip- 
tion of  early  days  on  the  beautiful  river.  In  the  year 
1788  it  was  no  light  matter  to  undertake  a  journey  from 
the  capital  of  Massachusetts  to  the  seat  of  government  of 
the  Northwest.  On  May  5,  after  a  tedious  and  fatiguing 
horseback  journey  of  twenty -two  days.  Colonel  May 
arrived  at  Pittsburg,  "a  place  by  no  means  elegant,  and 
the  people  not  so  industrious  as  he  had  seen."  The  river 
Avas  fairly  alive  with  great  boats  carrying  home-seekers 
to  the  fertile  regions  below.  No  fewer  than  tw^o  hundred 
and  fifty  of  these  craft  had  been  counted  that  spring, 
and  probably  as  many  more  went  down  by  night,  when 
no  tally  was  kept.  On  one  of  these  boats  Colonel  May 
counted  twenty-nine  whites,  twenty-four  negroes,  nine 
dogs,  twenty -three  horses,  cows  and  hogs,  besides  pro- 
visions. It  w^ent  to  the  heart  of  the  thrifty  Bostoninii 
that  this  enormous  emigration  Avas  bound  for  Kentucky, 
where  there  were  no  restrictions  as  to  slaverv,  and  thai 
his  own  party  w^as  only  the  second  one  destined  for  tiif 
region  of  freedom. 

While  a  great  majority  of  the  boats  passed  down  the 


'  State  Department  ^ISS.  relating  to  the  Northwest  Territory. 

340 


I     • 


'^.-■.&i5=: ...  ' 


FOKT    IIAIJMMJ.    IMFI/r    IN    178.1 


CAM!'    MAlJin  S,  TMK    KIIJST    HoMH    OK    Till;    I'lUNKKIJS 


THE    NOKTIIWEST    TERRITORY 

river  safely,  yet  Indian  attacks  were  so  frequent  as  to 
give  hazard  to  the  journey.  Indeed,  while  Colonel  May 
was  vraiting  at  Pittsburg,  news  came  that  on  the  20th 
of  March  three  Kentucky-bound  boats  were  attacked  by 
the  savages  near  the  Big  Miami ;  and  that  among  those 
killed  were  Samuel  Turviance,  a  Baltimore  ])atriot,  and 
three  French  scientists  who  were  bent  on  ex})loring  the 
country.  After  a  fortnight  spent  in  the  society  of  those 
hospitable  soldiers  of  the  Revolution  who  were  making 
their  homes  at  Pittsburg,  Colonel  May  cast-off  the  fasts 
of  his  flat-boat  and  committed  himself  to  the  current  of 
the  Ohio.  Without  wind  or  waves,  at  a  speed  of  five 
miles  an  hour,  the  party  of  twenty -seven  men  (besides 
cows  and  calves,  dogs  and  hogs)  were  borne  tow  ds 
their  wilderness  home.  Through  thunder-storm  and 
sunshine  the  boat  drifted  on  its  course,  now  between 
high  banks,  and  again  past  broad  stretches  of  fertile 
bottom-lands.  On  the  Virginia  bank  tlie  house  of  some 
settler,  like  Ebenezer  Zane,  occasionally  gave  human  in- 
terest to  the  prospect,  and  after  a  voyage  of  scarcely 
fifty  hours  they  had  the  good  fortune  to  reach  the  Mus- 
kingum in  safety. 

By  day  there  was  work  in  plenty  for  all.  Speedily 
the  axe  was  laid  at  the  root  of  the  trees,  and  an  acre 
and  a  half  of  clearing  was  reckoned  a  good  day's  work. 
So  the  week  would  pass,  and  on  Sunday  General  Ilai  mar 
would  send  his  barge  to  bring  to  his  hospitable  board 
the  veterans  of  war  and  the  pioneers  of  peace.  "As 
elegant  a  table  as  any  in  Boston  "  was  spread  at  Fort 
Harmar :  for  solids  there  were  bacon  gammon,  venison 
tongues,  roast  and  boiled  lamb,  barbecued  and  a  la  mode 
beef,  perch  and  catfish,  lobsters  and  oysters — or  what 
passed  as  such ;  for  vegetables  there  w^ere  green  peas, 
radishes,  and  salads;  and  "for  drink,  spirits,  excellent 

341 


THE  NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

wine,  brandy,  and  beer."'  AVith  stories  of  the  camp  and 
plans  for  the  field  the  short  afternoon  was  spent ;  and 
after  a  cup  of  tea,  the  refreshed  settlers  were  rowed 
across  the  Muskingum  to  their  stockade  home.' 

September  2d  was  set  apart  for  the  formal  installa- 
tion of  the  judges  of  the  newly  created  courts  for  the 
new  county  of  Washington,  then  consisting  of  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-two  people.  Again  General  Ilarmar  had 
the  muskets  of  the  garrison  polished  for  the  occasion ; 
the  governor  and  judges  were  on  hand;  and  Sheriff  and 
Colonel  of  Militia  Ebenezer  Sproat,  with  drawn  sword 
and  w^and  of  office,  marched  at  the  head  of  the  proces- 
sion with  all  the  dignity  and  impressiveness  of  his  pro- 
totype, the  Sheriff  of  Middlesex,  at  a  Harvard  com- 
mencement. Persons  being  more  limited  than  offices, 
Eufus  Putnam  was  made  both  justice  of  the  peace  and 
also  judge  of  probate,  and  on  Eeturn  Jonathan  Meigs 
tw^o  clerkships  were  bestowed.  To  add  lustre  to  the  occa- 
sion, the  Reverend  Manasseh  Cutler  was  present  to  offer 
prayer.  In  response  to  Sheriff  Sproat's  stentorian  dec- 
laration that  the  court  of  common  pleas  was  "  open  for 
the  administration  of  even-handed  justice  to  the  poor 
and  the  rich,  the  guilty  and  the  innocent,  without  re- 
spect to  persons,"  Paul  Fearing  presented  himself  to 
be  admitted  as  the  first  lawyer  in  the  Xorthwest  Ter- 
ritory ;  then  the  court  adjourned  to  await  the  commis- 
sion of  crime.  One  smiles  to  note  the  seriousness  with 
which  these  six-score-and-ten  pioneers  transplanted  to 
the  wilderness  a  system  of  government  so  complete  that 
it  w^ould  answer  the  manifold  necessities  of  a  nation — 
at  least,  in  so  far  as  internal  relations  were  concerned ; 
but  wisdom  was  justified  by  her  children. 

^  Journal  and  Letters  of  Colonel  John  May  (Cincinnati,  1873). 

342 


THE    NORTHWEST    TERRITORY 

While  the  "Marietta  settlers  were  busy  among  the 
buckeyes  and  the  maples,  another  colony  was  planting 
itself  farther  down  the  river.  While  Cutler  was  in 
New  York  lobbying  the  ordinance  and  land  grant 
through  Congress,  he  found  that  in  order  to  obtain  the 
requisite  number  of  votes  he  would  be  compelled  to 
make  terras  with  Colonel  W^illiam  Duer,  who  promised 
that  the  bills  should  pass  provided  the  Ohio  Company 
would  stand  sponsor  for  twice  the  amount  of  land 
needed,  and  allow  Colonel  Duer's  friends  to  take  the 
other  half.  The  result  was  that  Dr.  Cutler  and  Win- 
throp  Sargent  made  contracts  with  the  Treasury,  not 
only  for  the  Ohio  Company's  lands  but  also  for  the 
lands  they  afterwards  ceded  to  the  Scioto  Company,  in 
which  latter  corporation  they  retained  an  interest  that 
they  shared  with  Putnam,  Parsons,  and  other  friends, 
including  Barlow  the  poet  and  Apothecary -general 
Craigie,  whose  house  in  Cambridge  Washington  and 
Longfellow  have  made  famous  by  occupying  it.  Bar- 
low, acting  as  F^ent  in  Paris,  disposed  of  Scioto  lands 
to  a  French  company,  Avhich  in  turn  sold  in  small  par- 
cels before  making  payment  to  Barlow.  On  October  20, 
1790,  the  first  of  the  French  immigrants  arrived  at 
Gallipolis,  where  by  Putnam's  energy  houses  had  been 
built  for  them.  There  was  dissatisfaction  on  the  part 
of  the  leaders,  questions  as  to  good  faith  on  the  part  of 
the  American  promoters,  incompetency  on  Barlow's  side, 
and  fraud  in  the  French  company ;  there  were  Indian 
wars,  and  a  financial  panic  in  which  Duer,  Craigie,  and 
the  moneyed  men  of  the  Ohio  Company  Avent  to  the 
wall;  but  in  spite  of  all  the  settlement  at  Gallipolis 
persisted.' 

^  For  the  intricate  history  of  the  Scioto  Company,  see  the  appendix 
to  Life  of  Manasseh  Cutler,  vol.  1. 

343 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDEIl    THREE    FLAGS 

For  the  first  two  years  at  Marietta  the  settlers  suffered 
comparativ  ly  little  from  Indian  attacks,  a  fact  due  not 
only  to  the  practice  of  planting  with  a  hoe  in  the  right 
hand  and  a  rifle  in  the  left,  but  also  to  the  protection 
afforded  by  the  guns  and  garrison  of  Fort  Ilarmar.' 
This  group  of  seven  or  eight  buildings  clustered  about  a 
strong  block -house  and  surrounded  by  a  palisade,  had 
been  constructed  in  1785  by  Major  Doughty,  the  first 
commander  of  the  artillery  of  the  United  States  under 
the  Constitution.  Commanding  both  the  Ohio  and  the 
Muskingum  rivers,  the  post  was  at  this  time  the  most 
important  military  station  in  the  country ;  for  while 
West  Point  and  Springfield  each  had  but  a  single  com- 
pany of  artillery,  the  Ohio  Eiver  jDosts  were  garrisoned 
by  596  men  out  of  the  entire  United  States  army  of 
672  men ;  and  of  this  remnant  General  Josiah  Ilarmar 
was  the  commander.  So  sweeping  had  been  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  Continental  army.  As  settlers  increased 
and  cabins  came  to  be  located  on  the  watercourses,  the 
savages  grew  more  and  more  restless,  while  the  British 
became  apprehensive  lest  an  attempt  should  be  made  to 
seize  the  frontier  posts.' 

'  Life  of  Majiasseh  Cutler,  vol.  i.,  p.  389. 

2  Soley's  "  "Wars  of  the  United  States, "  in  The  Narratue  and  Criticcv 
History  of  America,  vol.  vii.,  pp.  357,  449. 


V. 


V. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  UNITED  STATES  WIN  THE  NORTHWEST  POSTS 

A  NATIONAL  domain  implies  national  defence.  When 
the  general  government  came  into  the  title  to  the  North- 
west and  made  laws  and  appointed  officers  for  its  govern- 
ment, the  duty  of  protecting  settlers  and  enforcing  law 
and  order  devolved  on  the  nation.  With  Washington 
as  the  Chief  Executive,  there  could  be  no  question  that 
patiently,  persistently,  surely  the  national  boundaries 
would  be  rounded  out  until  the  stars  and  stripos  should 
float  over  every  frontier  post  and  the  power  of  the 
United  States  be  made  supreme  throughout  the  whole 
territory.  The  Indians  were  becoming  reconciled  to 
the  sovereignty  of  the  United  States,  and  even  Joseph 
Brant  was  looking  forward  to  the  inevitable  day  when 
the  British  should  no  longer  be  able  to  maintain  the 
frontier  posts.  Indeed,  that  chiefs  allegiance  to  the 
English  had  been  shaken  for  the  time  being  by  a  council 
of  his  enemies,  who  filled  Lord  Dorchester's  mind  with 
charges  and  complaints  against  the  chief  of  the  Mohawks 
in  his  dealings  with  the  Grand  River  lands.  After  re- 
pelling these  attacks  he  relapsed  into  literary  labors, 
translating  the  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England  into 
the  Mohawk  language.^     In  January,  17S9,  however, 

'  On  July  20,  1789,  President  Joseph  Willard,  of  Harvard  College, 
acknowledged  the  receipt  of  a  copy  of  this  work. — Stone's  Life  of 
'Joseph  Brant,  vol.  ii.,  p.  287. 

345 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

Brant  was  present  iit  the  treaty  of  Fort  Ilarmar  nego- 
tiated by  Governor  St.  Clair,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mus- 
kingum.' 

By  this  treaty  the  Lake  Indians  ratified  the  treaty  of 
Fort  Mcintosh  in  1785,  by  the  terms  of  which  the  Ind- 
ians kept  the  country  south  of  Lake  Erie,  from  the  Cuya- 
hoga to  the  Miami,  and  extending  south  to  about  the 
fortieth  degree  of  north  latitude,  the  Indians  retaining 
the  right  of  hunting  throughout  the  entire  country 
north  of  the  Ohio,  and  the  Americans  reserving  sites  for 
trading  posts  within  the  Indian  reservation.  The  lands 
along  the  west  bank  of  the  Detroit,  and  a  tract  twelve 
miles  square  at  Michilimackinac  also  were  granted  to 
the  Americans;  and  the  two  parties  to  the  treaty  mut- 
ually agreed  to  give  each  other  warning  of  hostile  in- 
tentions against  either.  A  copy  of  thi«s  treaty  fell  into 
Lord  Dorchester's  hands,  and  he  imraediatelv  communi- 
cated  its  provisions  to  Lord  Sidney,  with  the  further 
information  that  those  Indian  nations  not  parties  to  the 
treaty  "  seem  now  determined  to  remove  and  prevent 
all  American  settlements  northwest  of  the  Ohio."  In 
consonance  with  this  plan  a  large  party  of  Wabash  and 
Miami  Indians  appeared  at  Detroit,  with  the  intention 
of  presenting  the  war-pipe  to  the  commanding  officer; 
but  the  execution  of  this  design  was  prevented  by  the 
prudent  management  of  McKee,  w^ho  privately  discov- 
ered the  plan  and  convinced  the  chiefs  of  the  impropri- 
etv  of  such  action.' 

The  Indians,  however,  had  begun  to  feel  the  pressure 
of  the  white  settlements  on  the  Ohio.  Five  hundred 
savages  from  the  Great  Miami  removed  to  the  Glaize, 


^  Haldimani  Papers.    Dorchester  co  Sidne5%  January  10.  1789. 
'  Haldi^nand  Papers.    Dorchester  to  Sidney,  June  25,  1789. 

346 


Map 

to  illmtra 

IIARMAR,  ST.  CLAIR  and 

redrawn  from  I  he  mapt 

under  the  dlr 

Oi  >i.  o.  M.  ro 

by  Edward . 
Oct.  /* 

to 


\ 


UNITED   STATES    WIN    NORTHWEST    POSTS 

a  stream  falling  into  Lake  Erie  near  its  head  ;  and 
others  had  alread}^  begun  to  look  to  the  Spanish  side  of 
the  Mississippi  for  new  hunting-grounds.  Dorchester 
was  disturbed  bv  these  indications,  and  he  viewed  with 
apprehension  the  efforts  of  St.  Clair  and  Congress  to 
gain  control  over  the  Indians.  Particularly  was  he 
concerned  over  the  gathering  of  a  large  body  of  troops 
on  the  Ohio.  "  The  pretence  to  the  public,"  he  wrote 
to  Sidney,  "  is  to  repel  the  Indians ;  but  those  who 
must  know  better  and  see  that  an  Indian  war  does  not 
require  so  great  a  force,  nor  that  very  large  proportion 
of  artillery,  are  given  to  understand  that  part  of  these 
forces  are  to  take  possession  of  the  frontier,  as  settled 
by  treaty,  to  .^eize  the  posts  and  secure  the  fur-trade ;  a 
more  secret  motive,  perhaps,  is  to  reduce  the  state  gov- 
ernments and  crush  all  internal  opposition." 

Dorchester,  however,  had  little  fear  of  a  successful  at- 
tack on  the  upper  posts,  all  of  which  had  been  repaired 
and  provisioned  during  the  previous  year.  Yet  he  ad- 
mitted that  Detroit  could  be  defended  only  against  Ind- 
ians, and  must  depend  on  their  iidelitv  too^ether  with 
tbat  of  the  militia,  and  on  the  abilitv  of  the  comman- 
dant;  that  Kiagara  could  make  a  good  defence,  provid- 
ed the  militia  behaved  well ;  that  Michilimackinac  could 
keep  out  only  Indians ;  that  Fort  Ontario  was  not  and 
could  not  be  defended  at  all :  and  that  the  works  on  the 
Sorel  were  all  very  bad.' 

That  the  British  had  no  intention  of  yielding  the 
posts  immediately  is  made  evid^^nt  from  the  fact  that 
tb^^se  in  the  upper  country  were  repaired  during  1789. 
In  preparation,  however,  for  ultimate  surrender,  Captain 
Gother  Mann,  of  the  Royal  Engineers,  made  a  tour  of 

'  Haldimand  Papers.     Dorchester  to  Sidney,  Marcli  8,  1790. 

347 


THE  NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

the  lakes  during  the  summer  of  1788,  for  the  purpose 
of  a  detailed  examination  of  forts  and  channels.  xVt 
Detroit  he  found  Fort  Lernoult  in  a  fair  state  of  re- 
pair, the  inhabitants  having  furnished  the  pickets  for 
a  new  palisade  about  the  town ;  but  the  navy-yard,  be- 
ing beyond  the  defences,  was  hopelessly  open  to  attack, 
lie  selected  as  the  site  for  the  new  post  a  location  op- 
posite Bois  Blanc,  whence  the  guns  could  command  the 
channels  on  either  side  of  that  island  ;  and  the  opening 
events  of  the  War  of  1812  amply  justified  his  foresight. 
Sinclair's  fort  on  the  island  of  JMichiliraackinac  he 
found  on  too  extensive  a  scale  for  defence  against  the 
Indians,  and  "  far  too  little  against  cannon,  and  most  of 
that  ill-judged."  At  Sault  Ste.  Marie  the  lands  on  the 
American  side  of  the  line  were  the  better;  but  for 
business  purposes  there  was  room  enough  on  the  east- 
ern shore ;  and,  besides,  the  white-fish  resorted  to  that 
bank,  and  the  fish -packing  business  was  already  exten- 
sive. Further,  he  recommended  vessels  of  fifty  tons  for 
the  navigation  of  the  upper  lakes,  that  limit  being 
fixed  because  of  the  bars  at  the  mouth  of  the  St,  Clair 
Eiver  and  the  rapids  at  the  head  )f  that  stream  ;  and 
he  strongly  advised  against  continuing  the  practice  of 
building  flat -bottomed  vessels  for  lake  navigation.^ 
Beyond  this,  the  Indian  agent  McKee  negotiated  the 
purchase  from  the  savages  of  the  lands  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Detroit  River.'' 

Meanwhile  the  Indians  of  the  Wabash  and  the  Mi 
ami,  joined  by  the  Shawanese  on  the  Scioto  (whose  reg- 
ular occupation,  according  to  Brant,  was  horse-stealing), 

'  Gother  Mann  to  Dorchester,  December  6,  1788.  This  letter  is 
printed  out  of  its  order  in  the  Haldimand  Collection  given  in  the 
Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections.     See  vol.  xii.,  p.  35. 

^  Ibid.,  Colonel  McKee  to  Land  Board,  p.  28. 

848 


UNITED   STATES   WIN    NOUTIIWEST    POSTS 

made  the  passage  of  the  Ohio  a  voyage  of  a|)i)rehension 
and  peril.  In  June,  1T1M>,  information  came  to  Detroit 
that  the  Indians  on  the  Ojio,  in  the  course  of  hostilities, 
had  gone  so  far  as  to  burn  one  of  their  white  prisoners, 
a  proceeding  that  brought  a  message  of  remonstrance 
from  that  post.  That  same  month  eight  Americans  who 
had  escaped  from  the  Indians,  and  in  September  thirteen 
prisoners  brought  to  Detroit  by  the  Ohio  raiders,  were 
sent  back  to  Fort  Pitt  by  the  British,  and  pains  were 
taken  to  express  to  the  savages  the  king's  displeasure.' 
So  aggressive  had  these  Indian  attacks  become  that 
President  Washington  decided  that  the  time  was  ripe 
to  use  something  stronger  and  more  tangible  than 
treaties.  In  pursuance  of  this  idea  a  call  was  made  on 
Kentucky  for  1000  and  on  Pennsylvania  for  500  militia 
to  join  the  regulars  at  Fort  Washington,  built  on  the 
present  site  of  Cincinnati. 

During  the  latter  half  of  September,  1790,  the  militia 
came  in:  not  the  smart,  active  backwoodsmen  on  whose 
trusty  rifles  Washington  had  been  accustomed  to  rely 
during  the  Revolution,  but  old  and  infirm  men  and  even 
bovs,  substitutes,  manv  of  whom  had  never  fired  a  o:un. 
Indeed,  the  arms  they  brought  represented  a  greater 
variety  and  quantity  of  useless  weapons  than  it  was 
supposed  all  Kentucky  could  produce;  there  were  guns 
without  locks  and  barrels  without  stocks,  carried  by 
men  who  did  not  know  how"  to  oil  a  lock  or  fit  a  flint. 
Added  to  this  were  the  disputes  as  to  w4io  should  com- 
mand the  Kentuckians ;  and  these  w^ere  calmed  only  by 

'  Haldimand  Papers.  Dorchester  to  Grenville,  June  21  and  Septem- 
ber 25,  1790.  Possibly  so^ne  of  these  captives  were  taken  at  Big  Bot- 
tom in  January,  when  the  Ohio  Company's  town,  forty  miles  up  the 
Muskingum,  was  cut  off,  with  a  loss  of  fourteen  killed  and  three 
captured. 

349 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

placing  the  popular  Colonel  Trotter  over  the  Blue-grass 
l)attalions  and  giving  to  his  senior,  Colonel  Hardin,  the 
command  of  aU  the  militia.  On  the  3d  of  October  the 
march  to  the  Miami  viTTq^es  began;  and  so  far  as  regu- 
lations and  foresight  could  go  with  such  a  body  of  men, 
General  Harmar  seems  not  to  have  been  wanting.  Hut 
the  pack-horses  escaped,  as  it  was  for  the  financial  ad- 
vantage of  their  drivers  to  have  them  lost ;  and  gen- 
eral inefficiency  begot  demoralization  everywhere  save 
among  the  little  band  of  320  regulars,'  with  \vhom,  un- 
fortunately, the  militia  were  too  jealous  to  serve  effec- 
tively." 

On  October  i3th  a  patrol  of  horsemen  captured  a 
Shawanese  Indian,  who  reported  that  the  savages  were 
nowhere  in  force;  thereupon  Colonel  Hardin  was  de- 
tached with  six  hundred  light  troops  to  push  for  the 
Miami  villages,  on  the  present  site  of  Fort  Wayne,  and 
to  surprise  the  Indians.  Instead  of  the  enemy  iie  found 
their  deserted  and  still  burning  towns.  The  main  body 
of  the  army  having  come  up,  Colonel  Trotter  with  a 
small  force  w^as  sent  out  for  a  three  days'  scout ;  but, 
having  satisfied  himself  by  killing  two  Indians,  he  re- 
turned the  first  evening.  Then  Hardin,  anxious  to  re- 
trieve the  disgrace  brought  upon  the  militia  by  Trotter's 
failure,  sought  and  obtained  permission  to  discover  the 
enemy.  Confident  that  the  Indians  \vould  not  fight, 
Hardin  proceeded  carelessly  until,  coming  upon  a  party 
of  perhaps  a  hundred  savages,  the  militia,  all  save  nine, 
broke  and  fled  at  the  first  fire,  more  scared  by  the  war- 
whoop  than  hurt  by  the  bullets  of  their  foes.  The  reg- 
ulars stood  their  ground,  and  twenty-four  of  them,  with 

'  American  State  Papers,  Militar}^  Affairs,  vol.  i.,  Proceedings  of 
the  Court  of  Inquiry  on  General  Harmar. 

'^  Perkibs's  Western  Annals  (Cincinnati,  1846),  p.  342. 

350 


UNITED   STATES    WIN   NORTHWEST   POSTS 

the  nine  railitia-men,  met  death ;  but  of  the  retreating 
militia  some  never  stopped  until  they  had  crossed  the 
Ohio.'  The  army  having  burned  the  houses  in  five  vil- 
lages, and  corn  to  the  amount  of  twenty  thousand  bush- 
els, began  its  homeward  march.  General  llarmar,  anx- 
ious to  achieve  some  success,  now  detached  four  hundred 
choice  men  —  militia  and  regulars  —  to  return  to  the 
burned  villages  in  the  hope  of  finding  some  Indians  at 
the  scene  of  disaster.  ^.lajor  Wyllys,  of  the  regulars, 
was  placed  in  command ;  but  he  was  absolutely  unable 
to  control  the  militia,  who  ran  off  in  pursuit  of  small 
parties  of  the  enemy,  leaving  the  brave  major  and  his 
band  of  regulars  to  meet  death  at  the  hands  of  Little 
Turtle's  braves.  The  best  of  the  militia  and  of  the  reg- 
ulars were  now  dead ;  and  nothing  was  left  for  the 
array  but  to  struggle  homeward  as  best  they  might. 
Probably  not  more  than  150  Indians  were  engaged  in 
the  rout  of  an  army  of  1453  men.'' 

To  Harmar  and  his  friends  the  expedition  was  hailed 
as  a  success  ;  to  the  elated  Indians  it  was  an  encourage- 
ment to  renewed  aggressions.  Rufus  Putnam  was  un- 
der no  misapprehensions  as  to  the  result  of  the  campaign. 
He  knew  that  unless  measures  were  taken  speedily  to 
punish  the  savages,  the  fate  of  the  Ohio  settlements  was 
sealed.  Already  there  were  eighty  houses  at  Marietta ; 
twenty -two  miles  up  the  Muskingum  some  twenty  fami- 

^  Testimony  of  Lieutenant  Armstrong,  who  says  that  Hardin  ran 
with  the  militia.  Armstrong  was  saved  by  dropping  into  a  swamp. 
It  was  his  opinion  that  Trotter  might  have  surprised  and  captured  the 
enemy  the  day  before,  had  he  persisted.  Hardin  was  personally  a 
brave  man,  but  was  not  a  good  officer. 

•^  Testimony  of  Lieutena'ht  Denny.  It  appears  from  a  letter  to 
Brant,  quoted  by  Smith  {Life  of  Joseph  Brant,  vol.  ii.,  p.  294),  that  the 
Indian  loss  was  between  fifteen  and  twenty.  The  Americans  lost 
three  regular  and  ten  militia  officers,  and  about  five  hundred  men. 

351 


THE    NOUTllVVEST    UxNDEU    'I  IJilEE    FLAGS 

lies  had  settled  ;  on  Wolf  and  Duck  creeks  mills  had 
been  built;  at  l>elle  Prairie,  opposite  the  Little  Kana- 
wha, Ijetween  twenty  and  thirty  iiouses  were  scattered 
along  twelve  miles  of  shore ;  and  there  were  various 
other  little  settlements  at  the  mercv  of  Indian  attacks.' 
Moreover,  the  excited  Indians  now  dared  to  push  their 
way  into  the  Penns34vania  settlements  on  the  A  Ueghany, 
murdering  w^omen  and  children  and  taking  away  Cc*p- 
tives  and  horses.  It  is  estimated  that  from  1783  to 
October,  1790,  no  fewer  than  fifteen  hundred  men, 
women,  and  children  were  slain  or  captured  by  the  Ind- 
ians in  the  Ohio  country. 

It  is  necessary  here  to  understand  the  theory  on  which 
the  British  were  acting  in  regard  to  Indian  troubles; 
for  much  misapprehension  exists  on  this  point.  In  a 
letter  to  Brant,  dated  February  22, 1791,  Sir  John  John- 
son Avrites  that  he  and  Lord  Dorchester  held  that  "  the 
Americans  had  no  claim  to  that  part  of  the  country  be- 
yond the  line  established  in  1765,  at  Fort  Stanwix,  be- 
tween the  Indians  and  the  governors  and  agents  of  all 
the  provinces  interested,  and  including  the  sales  made 
since  the  war."  ISTot  being  able  to  afford  the  Indians 
assistance  in  arms,  Johnson  thought  the  British  should 
offer  their  mediation  to  bring  about  a  peace  on  terms 
just  and  honorable."  To  a  deputation  of  Indians  who 
visited  him.  Lord  Dorchester  replied  that  the  King  of 
England  had  never  given  away  the  Indian  lands,  because 
he  never  possessed  them ;  that  the  posts  would  be  re- 
tained only  until  England  and  America  could  adjust 
their  differences;  and  that  although  the  Indians  had  the 
friendship  and  good-will  of  the  English,  the  latter  could 

'  Putnam  to  Washington,  quoted  in  Perkins's  Western  Annals,  p. 
345. 
'  Stone's  Life  ofJosepJi  Brant,  vol.  ii.,  p.  297. 

353 


UNITED   STATES   WIN    NORTHWEST    l^OSTS 

not  embark  in  war,  but  could  only  defend  themselves  if 
attacked.* 

Chagrined  and  humiliated  by  Ilarmar's  failure,  Wash- 
ington called  Governor  St.  Clair  to  Philadelphia,  placed 
him  in  command  of  an  army  to  be  organized  for  a  new 
expedition  ;  and,  after  impressing  upon  him  the  peril  of 
ambush  and  surj^rise,  sent  him  against  the  hostile  tribes. 
The  expedition  warj  to  be  on  an  extensive  scale  ;  but 
then  as  now  the  oro-a^^ization  of  the  AVr^r  Denartment 
vr-^s  the  roughl}'-  unfitted  to  deal  with  war. 

On  March  3, 1791,  Congress  had  authorized  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Second  Regiment  of  Infantry,  and  at  the 
same  time  had  given  to  the  President  the  power  to  enlist 
not  more  than  2000  men  for  six  months,  thus  providing 
for  an  army  of  4128  non-commissioned  officers,  privates, 
and  musicians.  A  portion  of  this  force  was  needed  for 
garrison  duty  at  Yenango  and  Forts  Ilarmar,  Washing- 
ton, Knox,  and  Steuben ;  with  the  remainder  General 
St.  Clair  was  ordered  to  march  to  the  site  of  the  Miami 
towns  and  there  establish  himself.  liecruiting  was  slow ; 
but  on  Aufj^ust  1st  General  W^ilkinson  with  a  bodv  of 
Kentucky  horse  advanced  from  the  headquarters  at 
Cincinnati,  and  on  the  llth  such  of  the  First  and  Sec- 
ond Regiments  as  had  arrived,  together  with  Rhea's, 
Gaither's,  and  Patterson's  levies,  pushed  on  to  Ludlow's 
Station,  five  miles  from  Cincinnati,  the  object  of  the 
movement  being  to  withdraw  the  men  from  the  de- 
baucheries of  the  town  and  to  acquaint  them  in  some 
degree  with  camp  duties,  of  which  both  officers  and 
soldiers  were  very  generally  ignorant.  Eighteen  miles 
from  Ludlow's  Station  Fort  Hamilton  was  built. 

# 

General  St.  Clair  being  absent  on  recruiting  duty,  the 

*  Stone's  Life  of  Joseph  Brant,  vol.  "i.,  p.  299. 
z  303 


TUE  XORTinVEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

command  devolved  on  ^Major  Ilamtramck,  or  some  otlier 
officer  detailed  for  that  duty;  and  it  was  not  until  Octo- 
ber 4th  that  the  advance  movement  be^-an,  under  the 
command  of  General  Butler.  It  was  a  sorry  army. 
''  ricked  up  and  recruited  from  the  offscourings  of  large 
towns  and  cities;  enervated  by  idleness,  debaucheries, 
and  every  species  of  vice,  it  was  impossible  they  could 
ha\e  been  made  competent  to  the  arduous  duties  of 
Indian  warfare."  At  ieast  such  was  the  opinion  of  Ad- 
jutant-general Winthrop  Sargent.  He  found,  further, 
an  extraordinary  aversion  to  service,  demonstrated  by 
the  most  repeated  desertions,  in  many  instances  to  the 
very  foe  they  were  to  combat ;  the  late  period  at  which 
they  were  brought  into  the  field  left  no  leisure  or  oppor- 
tunity to  attempt  to  discipline  them ;  and,  moreover, 
they  were  badly  clothed,  badly  paid,  and  badly  fed. 
The  powder  was  bad,  and  "the  military  stores  were 
sent  on  in  the  most  infamous  order."  All  these  matters 
so  worried  St.  Clair  that  he  was  worn  out  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  campaign  ;'  and  the  continued  delinquencies 
of  the  contractor  were  "  one  among  the  many  primary 
causes  "  of  defeat. 

On  the  8th  of  October,  when  forty -four  and  one-quarter 
miles  from  Fort  Washington,  the  flank  guards  fired  un- 
successfully upon  an  Indian,  the  first  one  seen  upon  the 
march ;  four  days  later  the  marksmen  killed  the  savage 

'  JDiary  of  Colonel  Wintlirop  Sargent,  Adjutant-genera!  of  the  United 
States  army  during  the  campaign  of  1791.  The  original  manuscript 
of  Colonel  Sargent's  diary  was  printed  in  1851  in  an  edition  of  forty- 
six  copies,  with  two  plates,  for  George  Wymberley  -  Jones,  as  tlie 
fourth  of  the  series  of  Wormsloe  quartos.  The  diary  was  then  in  the 
possession  of  Winthrop  Sargent,  of  Philadelphia,  a  grandson  of  Colonel 
Sargent.  The  above  quotations  are  made  from  the  copy  presented  to 
Peter  Force  by  Mr.  "Wymberly  Jones,  and  now  in  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress. 

354 


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ST.  CLAIK  5?    ADVANCE   DIbCOVEliLD 


UNITED   STATES   WIN   NOKTIIWEST    POSTS 

they  encountered,  and  secured  a  quantity  of  fresh  peltry 
and  four  or  live  horses.  So  i)lentit'ul  was  the  game  and 
so  great  the  temptation  to  kill  it,  that  even  the  penalty 
of  a  hundred  lashes  could  not  keep  the  militia  from 
firing,  thus  demoralizing  discipline.  On  the  14th,  sixty- 
eight  and  a  half  miles  from  Cincinnati,  Fort  JelFerson 
was  laid  out  as  a  square  log  fort  with  four  bastions,  on 
*•  a  pretty  rising  ground,  terminating  in  gentle  and  low 
descents  to  east  and  west  to  a  prairie."  13y  the  ITth, 
but  one  day's  rations  and  one  day's  allowance  of  liquor 
remained ;  the  forage  was  nearly  exhausted,  and  even 
had  the  troops  been  wcil  disciplined  matters  would  have 
been  extremely  serious.  As  it  was  the  militia  were  dis- 
contented and  insubordinate  ;  and,  as  the  terms  of  their 
enlistment  Avere  about  to  expire,  they  were  beginning  to 
prepare  to  go  home.  Heavy  rains  and  snow  Hurries 
added  to  the  discomfort.  The  troops  wevo  put  first 
upon  half  rations  ind  afterwards  upon  quarter  rations 
of  bread  ;  and  tLiee  hundred  and  fifty  pack-horses  with 
a  company  of  much-needed  riflemen  were  sent  back 
for  supplies.  On  the  23d  three  soldiers  were  exe- 
cuted— one  for  shooting  an  officer,  and  two  for  deser- 
tion. 

On  November  3d,  the  army  having  proceeded  ninety- 
seven  miles  from  Cincinnati,  camp  was  made  "  on  a  very 
handsome  piece  of  rising  ground,"  Avith  a  stream  of  forty 
feet  in  front,  "  running  to  the  west."  The  army  was  in 
two  lines,  with  four  pieces  of  artillery  in  the  centre  of 
each  ;  Faulkner's  company  of  riflemen  upon  the  right 
flank  with  one  troop  of  horse,  and  another  troop  of 
horse  on  the  left.  The  militia  encamped  across  the 
stream,  three  hundred  yards  away,  '*  upon  a  high,  exten- 
sive, fine  flat  of  open  woods."  From  abundant  evidences 
the  place  was  known  to  have  been  one  of  general  resort 

355 


THE    NOUTIIWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

for  the  Indians  ;  and  indeed  a  party  of  fifteen  departed 
as  the  troops  advanced. 

This  position,  very  defensible  a<;ainst  reguhir  troops, 
"  was  feeble  to  an  Indian  attack,"  because  of  the  close 
woods  near  by,  of  the  underbrush  and  fallen  timber  at 
hand,  and  of  "an  unfortunate  ravine"  and  small  swamps 
on  the  borders.  A  chain  of  sentinels  around  the  camp, 
at  a  distance  of  fifty  >nces  apart,  constituted  the  princi- 
pal security  against  surprise.  The  militia  detailed  to 
explore  the  country  pleaded  fatigue,  and  such  was  the 
temper  of  the  troops  that  the  command  could  not  be  en- 
forced. At  midnight  Captain  Stough,  of  the  levies,  sent 
out  with  a  small  force  to  prevent  the  horses  from  being 
stolen,  was  driven  in  by  the  Indians,  but  no  report  was 
made  to  headquarters.  Occasional  shots  exchanged  dur- 
ing the  night  led  St.  Clair  to  keep  the  men  underarms; 
and  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  the  army  was  turned 
out  earlier  than  usual,  and  continued  on  parade  until 
day  began  to  break.  A  half  hour  before  sunrise  came 
the  Indian  yell,  like  "  an  infinitude  of  horse-bells,"  fol- 
lowed by  an  attack  on  the  militia.  Although  occupy- 
ing a  defensible  position,  the  levies  made  no  defence, 
but  indulfT:ed  in  "  a  most  if^nominious  flif^rht."  Dashinn^ 
helter-skelter  into  the  camp  of  the  regulars,  the  militia 
threw  the  forming  battalions  into  some  confusion ;  the 
fugitives  even  passed  through  the  second  line,  and  were 
checked  only  by  the  Indians  completely  surrounding 
the  camp.  Close  upon  the  heels  of  the  flying  militia 
followed  the  Indians,  who  for  a  moment  seemed  as  if 
determined  to  enter  the  camp ;  but  the  array  of  fixed 
bayonets  having  cooled  their  ardor,  they  dropped  be- 
hind logs  and  bushes,  and  at  a  distance  of  seventy 
yards  began  to  pour  a  deadly  fire  into  the  closed  ranks 
of  the  soldiers.    Probablv  there  were  1500  Indians; 

356 


UNITED   STATES  WIN  NOUTIIWEST   POSTS 

while  of  St.  Clair's  total  army,  aside  from  tlio  militia 
of  1»380,  not  more  than  108() — and  those  raw  and  un- 
disciplined troops — were  avaihihle  for  battle.  For  two 
hours  men  who  never  before  had  fired  even  a  blank- 
cartridge  stood  up  against  the  unseen  foe;  ollicors  and 
men  dropped  fast,  save  in  Clark's  battalion  and  the 
riflemen  on  the  right  Hank,  who  gave  a  good  account  of 
themselves,  lighting  after  the  Indian  fashion.  Butler's 
battalion  charged  with  spirit,  and  "  the  artillery,  if  not 
well  served,  was  bravely  fought,  every  oflicer  and  more 
than  two- thirds  of  the  men  being  killed  or  wounded." 
The  Second  Regiment  made  three  charges,  until  but  two 
officers  were  left  alive,  and  one  of  the  two  was  wounded.' 
With  daring  spirit  the  savages  rushed  on  the  artil- 
lery, and  twice  gained  the  camp,  plundering  the  tents 
and  scalping  the  dead  and  dying,  but  both  times  they 
were  driven  back.  The  loss  of  officers  and  comrades, 
however,  demoralized  the  men,  so  that  they  huddled 
together  and  became  targets  for  the  savages,  and  neither 
threats  nor  entreaties  could  bring  order  out  of  the  chaos. 
It  was  only  when  the  troops  had  almost  ceased  firing 
in  their  demoralization  that  the  gout- ridden  St.  Clair, 
cool  and  brave  in  disaster,  ordered  a  retreat.  Onlv  the 
Indian  madness  for  plunder  left  alive  a  single  man  to 
tell  the  tale  of  disaster.  Such  of  the  wounded  as  could 
travel  at  all  were  mounted  on  horses;  the  others,  though 
few,  charged  their  pieces,  and  with  what  fortitude  they 
could  muster  awaited  the  barbarities  in  store  for  them. 


^  The  regulars  and  levies  lost  of  men  and  non-commissioned  officers 
550  killed  and  200  wounded  ;  of  officers,  31  killed  and  24  wounded, 
out  of  95.  The  militia  had  29  officers  and  290  men  ;  their  loss  was 
4  officers  killed  and  5  wounded,  38  men  killed  and  29  wounded, 
besides  14  camp  men  killed  and  13  wounded.  The  Indians,  led  by 
Blue  Jacket,  numbered  1500,  of  whom  but  30  were  killed. 

357 


THE  NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

The  scattering  discharge  of  fire-arms  told  to  the  fugitives 
the  agonizing  story  of  live,  dearly  sold.  At  half-past 
nine  the  retreat  began,  officers  and  men  throwing  away 
arms,  ammunition,  and  accoutrements  in  their  precipi- 
tate and  ignominious  flight ;  and  at  seven  that  evening 
the  friendly  gates  of  Fort  Jefferson,  twenty-nine  miles 
from  the  battle-field,  opened  to  the  fugitives.  But  at 
five  o'clock  next  morning  the  march  was  resumed,  lest 
famine  should  complete  the  work  left  by  the  sav  ges. 
On  the  8th,  the  remnant  of  the  army  reached  Cincin- 
nati.* 

Three  months  aftc*  St.  Clair's  '  "jat,  Colonel  Sar- 
gent visited  the  scone  of  action,  ii^lthough  twenty 
inches  of  snow  covered  the  ground,  at  every  tread  of 
his  horse's  feet  dead  and  mano^led  bodies  were  brouo:ht 
to  view" ;  every  twig  and  bush  was  cut  down  by  bullets, 
and  the  trees  were  riddled  by  Indian  shot,  while  the  fire 
of  the  troops,  even  of  the  artillery,  appeared  to  have 
been  ineffective.  So  far  as  possible, the  mutilated  bodies 
w^ere  suitably  buried  in  the  frozen  ground ;  and  several 
tons  of  iron- work  w^as  recovered,  but  the  artillery  had 
disappeared. 

In  all  the  story  of  Washington's  life  there  is  no  more 


'  See  also  "Causes  of  the  Failure  of  the  Expedition  against  the  Ind- 
ians, in  1791,  under  the  Command  of  General  St.  Clair,"  American  State 
Papers,  vol.  1.,  Military  Affairs,  p.  63.  Mr.  Fitzsimons,  as  the  result  of 
the  inquiry  by  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  reported 
the  causes  of  failure  to  be :  delays  in  furnishing  material,  misman- 
agement and  r  gleet  in  the  quartermaster's  and  contractor's  depart- 
ments, lateness  of  the  season,  and  want  of  discipline  and  experience 
of  the  troops.  St.  Clair  was  completely  exonerated,  "as  his  conduct 
iu  all  the  preparatory  arrangements  was  marked  with  peculiar  ability 
and  zeal,  so  his  conduct  during  the  action  furnished  strong  testimonies 
of  his  coolness  and  intrepidity."  See  also  the  report  of  Mr.  Giles, 
Second  Congress,  second  session. 

358 


ANTHONY  WAYNE 


UNITED   STATES   WIN    NOllTUWEST   POSTS 

human  passage  than  that  which  relates  how  the  news 
of  disaster  was  brought  to  him  one  December  day  while 
he  was  at  dinner ;  how  the  messenger  would  confide  his 
despatches  to  none  but  the  commander-in-chief;  how 
the  President  got  their  purport,  then  quietly  returned  to 
the  table  and  afterwards  went  through  the  appointed 
function  for  the  evening ;  and  how,  after  all  was  over, 
Washington,  in  the  presence  only  of  Tobias  Lear,  his 
secretary,  poured  forth  one  of  those  torrents  of  rage 
and  passion  that  on  rare  occasions  passed  over  him  as 
a  squall  lashes  a  mountain  lake,  leaving  it  placid  and 
serene.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  on  this  occasion 
Washington  swore !  But  the  end  was  the  determination 
that  St.  Clair  should  not  be  prejudiced,  but  should  have 
justice.' 

Realizing  from  his  own  bitter  experiences  with  militia 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  French  and  Indian  War,  that  the 
failures  of  Harmar  and  St.  Clair  were  due  quite  as  much 
to  the  insubordinate  character  of  the  troops  as  to  the 
lack  of  capacity  on  the  part  of  their  commanders,  Wash- 
ington now  selected  for  general  of  the  army  a  soldier  of 
proverbial  bravery,  Mad  Anthony  Wayne,  one  of  those 
rare  men  whom  prudence  teaches  when  to  be  rash  suc- 
cessfully. The  grandson  of  a  Yorkshireman  who  had 
removed  first  to  County  Wicklow,  in  Ireland  (where  he 
fought  gallantly  at  the  battle  of  the  Boyne),  and  then 
had  come  with  the  Scotch -Irish  to  settle  in  Chester 
County,  Pennsylvania,  young  Anthony  Wayne  inher- 
ited also  from  his  Indian-fighting  father  such  a  love  of 
arms  that  the  teachers  of  Philadelphia  were  unable  to 
put  their  kind  of  learning  into  his  head.  He  was  ten 
years  old  the  year  Braddock  was  defeated,  and  fifteen 

^  Irving's  Life  of  George  WasJiington,  vol.  v.,  p.  103. 

359 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

when  Montreal  capitulated.  The  British  army  being 
closed  to  the  son  of  a  Pennsylvania  frontier  farmer,  he 
chose  the  life  nearest  the  soldier's — that  of  a  surveyor, 
lie  was  twenty  years  old  when  Benjamin  ^ranklin  and 
his  associates  selected  him  to  lead  a  band  of  settlers  to 
Nova  Scotia,  where  for  a  year  the  enterprising  post- 
master-general of  the  colonies  hoped  to  make  a  fortune 
out  of  a  great  land  speculation.  The  troubles  with 
England  quickly  stopped  emigration,  and  Wayne  re- 
turned to  Pennsylvania  to  take  a  small  but  busy  part 
in  the  conventions  and  assemblies  that  led  up  to  the 
Revolution. 

Entering  the  service  as  a  colonel  in  the  Pennsylvania 
line,  Wayne  and  St.  Clair  were  fellow -officers  in  the 
unsuccessful  Canada  expedition,  and  afterwards  they 
became  not  altogether  ungenerous  rivals.  At  Brandy- 
wine,  Germantown,  Monmouth,  and  Stony  Point,  AV^ayne 
led  his  Pennsylvania  troops  with  unsurpassed  gallantry; 
and  after  Yorktown  he  won  a  major- general's  commis- 
sion in  Greene's  campaign  in  Georgia,  from  which  state 
he  was  sent  to  Congress  with  credentials  that  were  not 
approved  by  the  House  of  Representatives.  In  April, 
1702,  at  the  end  of  Wayne's  unsuccessful  contest  for  a 
seat  in  the  House,  Washington  appointed  this  bankrupt 
Georgia  planter  and  Pennsylvania  farmer  to  command 
the  army.  Wayne's  task  was  to  retrieve  the  failure  of 
St.  Clair,  his  former  rival,  and  to  avenge  the  death  of  his 
campmate  and  friend,  General  Richard  Butler,  who  after 
winning  glory  in  the  Revolution  died  the  death  of  a  Bay- 
ard on  St.  Clair's  bloody  field.*     The  first  necessity  was 

*  There  were  three  brothers  Butler  in  this  battle.  Captain  Edward 
Butler  removed  the  wounded  general  from  the  field  ;  returning  he 
found  his  other  brother,  Major  Butler,  shot  through  both  legs,  and 
carried  him  to  the  same  tree  under  which  the  general  was  placed. 

360 


UNITED  STATES  WIN  NORTHWEST  POSTS 

to  get  into  shape  the  enlarged  army  that  Congress  had 
authorized  for  the  campaign,  and  had  named  the  Legion 
of  the  United  States. 

Arriving  at  Pittsburg  in  June,  ^Vayne  began  tlie  ar- 
duous task  of  recruiting  and  drilling  men  who  were  so 
terrified  at  the  name  of  Indian  that  while  yet  in  Penn- 
sylvania on  one  occasion  the  mere  report  of  savages  in 
the  neighborhood  caused  one-third  of  the  sentinels  to 
desert  their  posts.  So  thorough  was  the  drill  that  by 
St.  Patrick's  day  the  sons  of  that  saint  could  manoeu- 
vre and  shoot  in  a  wpv  to  astonish  the  observant  Ind- 
ians. In  May,  1793,  .v^ayne  with  his  legion  dropped 
down  the  Ohio  from  his  camp  near  Fort  Mcintosh  to 
Fort  Washington,  and  there  kept  up  the  daily  drills 
while  he  grimly  awaited  the  results  of  the  council  to  be 
held  with  the  Indians  at  the  mouth  of  the  Detroit. 

Desiring  above  all  things  to  reach,  if  possible,  a  har- 
monious understanding  with  the  Western  Indians  before 
resorting  to  hostilities,  Washington,  early  in  1793,  ap- 
pointed as  commissioners  General  Benjamin  Lincoln,  of 
Massachusetts,  who  had  been  Secretary  of  War,  and  had 
suppressed  Shay's  rebellion  in  1787;  Beverly  Randolph, 
of  Virginia;  and  Colonel  Timothy  Pickering,  then  of 
Pennsylvania,  the  Postmaster-general,  and  shortly  af- 
terwards the  Secretary  of  War.  After  a  private  coun- 
cil with  the  British  agents,  Colonel  Brant,^  on  behalf 
of  the  Confederated  Indians,  sent  to  the  commission- 
ers an  ultimatum  stating  that  the  southern  boundary 
of  the  Indian  lands  must  be  the  ^^^io  Piver;  and  when 

When  retreat  became  necessary  Gci  e  ai  i^c ..  -r  said,  "Edward,  I  am 
mortally  wounded.    Leave  me  to  my  late  and  save  my  brother  !"    It 
is  to  be  hoped  tliat  he  died  before  the  coming  of  the  Indians.     See 
Stille's  Life  of  ^Yayne,  p.  3T0. 
*  Canadian  Archives.     Brant  to  Colonel  McKee,  May  17,  1793. 

361 


THE    NOUTJiWEST   UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

the  council  met  on  July  31,  in  the  little  council-house  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Detroit,  this  message  was  repeated  in 
emphatic  form.  "We  sliall  be  persuaded  that  you  mean 
to  do  us  justice,  if  you  agree  that  the  Ohio  shall  be  the 
boundary-line  between  us,"  said  the  message;  "if  you 
will  not  consent  thereto  our  meetinf^:  will  be  altofirether 
unnecessary."  To  this  the  commissioners  made  reply 
that  it  was  impossible  to  fix  the  Ohio  as  the  boundary, 
and  that  the  negotiation  was  therefore  at  an  end.*  So 
the  commissioners  returned  to  report  their  failure;  and 
the  chiefs  of  the  Western  Nations  informed  Simcoe  that 
the  Americans  insisted  on  keeping  the  whole  Indian 
country,  and  in  payment  offered  money,  which  Avas  use- 
less to  them.  "  We  expect,"  they  said,^  "  to  be  forced 
again  to  defend  ourselves  and  our  country,  and  we  look 
up  to  the  great  God,  who  is  a  witness  of  all  that  passes 
here,  for  His  pity  and  His  help."  McKee,  reporting 
the  results  of  the  council  to  Simcoe,  professes  that  he 
did  all  he  could  to  bring  about  a  better  result ;  but  that 
the  Western  Indians  would  not  agree  with  the  Six  Na- 
tions, but  insisted  on  the  Oliio  boundary.  "  The  nations 
that  have  not  sold,"  he  says,  "  will  enjoy  without  dis- 
pute the  lands  belonging  to  them ;  these  will  form  an 
extensive  barrier  between  the  British  and  American 
territory.  Although  I  have  used  no  influence  to  pre- 
vent a  peace,  which  would  have  afforded  me  gratifica- 
tion, I  expect  to  be  blamed  by  the  malevolent." ""  One 
need  not  necessarily  be  malevolent  in  assuming  that  a 
result  so  entirely  satisfactory  to  his  masters  was  brought 
about  through  the  efforts  of  the  wily  Indian  agent. 
Indeed,  a  contrary  view  would  be  an  aspersion  on  Mc- 

'  Canadian  Archives,  1891,  p.  54. 
'^  Ibid.,\%^\,  p.  55. 
' /6i(?.,  1891,  p.  55. 
363 


EULUPIU If »  KiA2X^ 


DKAWING-KOU.M,  WAYNE   HOMESTEAD 


UNITED   STATES  WIN  NOPwTIIWEST  TOSTS 

Kee's  undoubted  abilities  and  influence  over  the  savages 
whom  he  fed  and  clothed.' 

It  was  September  before  Secretary  Knox  counter- 
manded the  orders  against  an  Indian  campaign.  "Every 
offer  has  been  made  to  obtain  peace  bv  milder  terms 
than  the  sword,*'  wrote  Knox ;  '^  but  the  efforts  have 
failed  under  circumstances  that  leave  us  nothing  to  ex- 
pect but  war."  In  short,  the  Indians  had  stipulated  for 
the  Ohio  boundary-line,  and  that  was  an  impossibility. 
On  receipt  of  this  letter  Wayne  replied  from  Camp 
Ilobson's  Choice:  "I  will  advance  to-morrow  with  the 
force  I  have."  On  October  13tli  the  army  encamped 
on  a  branch  of  the  Miami  eighty  miles  north  of  Cin- 
cinnati, a  spot  to  which  Wayne  gave  the  name  Green- 
ville, in  honor  of  his  commander  and  friend  in  the 
South  Carolina  campaign.  There  he  passed  the  winter, 
sending  forward  a  large  detachment  to  build  upon  St. 
Clair's  fatal  lield  a  post  euphemistically  called  Fort 
Recovery. 

The  Indians  know  a  soldier.  They  quickly  took  the 
measure  of  Braddock  and  of  Bouquet,  of  St.  Clair  and 
of  Wayne.  The  way  in  which  the  Swiss  colonel  and 
the  Pennsylvania  general  handled  their  men  on  the 
wilderness  march  showed  to  the  savages  that  ambush 
was  out  of  the  question ;  and  that  a  battle  or  else  sub- 
mission were  the  alternatives.  While  the  administra- 
tion had  no  desire  to  get  into  difficulties  with  Great 
Britain,  still  Secretary  Knox  instructed  AVayne  that  if 
in  his  operations  against  the  Indians  it  should  be  found 
necessary  to  dislodge  the  British  garrison  in  Governor 
Simcoe's  fort  at  the  rapids  of  the  Miami,  he  was  author- 

'  A  brief  reference  to  the  council  will  be  found  in  Charles  Went- 
wor4;h  Upham's  Life  of  Timothy  Pickering  (Boston,  1873),  vol.  ill.,  p. 
49  et  seq. 

363 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

ized  in  tlie  name  of  the  President  to  do  so.  On  the  30tli 
of  June,  1794^,  a  force  of  riflemen  were  attacked  sudden- 
ly under  the  guns  of  Fort  Recovery;  but  tlie  savages, 
although  they  appeared  in  force,  were  beaten  olF. 

Making  feinis  towards  the  ^lianii  villages  on  the  left 
and  Iloche  dc  Bout  on  the  right,  AVayne's  army,  on 
August  8th,  advanced  to  the  Auglaize  to  find  that  by 
reason  of  the  timely  warning  of  Newman,  a  deserter, 
the  Indians  had  precipitately  abandoned  their  settle- 
ments and  towns.  Thus  without  loss  Wayne  gained 
possession  of  ''the  grand  emporium  of  the  hostile  Ind- 
ians of  the  West,"  with  its  very  extensive  and  highly 
cultivated  fields  and  gardens,  show^ing  the  work  of  many 
hands.  The  margins  of  those  beautiful  rivers,  the  Miami 
of  the  Lakes  (Maumee)  and  the  Auglaize,  appeared  like 
one  continuous  village  for  miles  up  and  down  the 
streams ;  while  for  immensity  the  fields  of  corn  w^ere 
unrivalled  from  Canada  to  F^lorida.  In  the  midst  of 
this  beautiful  prospect,  at  the  confluence  of  the  two 
rivers,  Wayne  set  a  strong  stockade  fort  bastioncd  with 
four  good  block  -  houses,  and  called  it  Fort  Defiance. 
Thence  he  sent  to  the  Delawares,  Shawanese,  Miamis, 
and  AVyandottes  and  their  allies  an  offer  of  a  lasting 
peace,  which  should  restore  them  to  their  lands  and  vil- 
lages and  preserve  their  helpless  and  distressed  women 
and  children  from  hunger  and  famine.  This  message 
he  sent  by  Christopher  Miller,  an  adopted  Shawanese; 
and  he  warned  the  Indians  that  injury  or  delay  to  his 
messenger  would  be  followed  by  the  death  of  the  pris- 
oners, some  of  whom  were  known  "  to  belong  to  the 
first  families  of  their  nations." 

Wayne's  offer  met  an  evasive  response.  On  August 
20th,  the  Indians,  assembled  near  the  British  post  on 
McKee's  farm  at  the  falls  of  the  Miami,  received  the 

364 


UNITED   STATES   WIN    NORTHWEST   POSTS 

American  army.  Into  Price's  battalion  of  mounted 
volunteers  the  savages,  secreted  in  tlio  woods  and  the 
tall  grass,  poured  a  murderous  lire.  Tiio  tornado-swept 
ground  was  covered  with  fallen  timber,  which  gave  the 
Indians  a  great  advantage ;  and  the  savages  attempted 
to  execute  their  favorite  manoeuvre  of  turning  the  ene- 
my's Hank.  Sending  Major-general  Scott  to  turn  tlie 
Indian  right,  Wayne  ordered  his  front  line  to  advance 
and  charge  with  trailed  arms,  to  arouse  the  Indians 
from  their  coverts  at  the  point  of  the  bayonot,  and  when 
up,  to  deUver  a  close  and  well-directed  lire  on  their 
backs,  followed  by  a  brisk  cliarge,  so  as  not  to  let  them 
load  again.  So  sharp  was  this  attack  and  so  precipitate 
the  retreat  of  the  savages  that  the  detachments  sent  to 
turn  the  flanks  of  the  Indians  could  not  catch  up  with 
their  comrades  who  took  the  straight  road  to  tiie  British 
post. 

During  the  three  days  that  he  remained  on  the  Mi- 
ami, Wayne  treated  the  British  garrison  to  huge  bon- 
fires of  standing  corn,  and  of  the  houses  and  farm  build- 
ings of  the  British  Indian  agent,  Alexander  McKee, "  the 
principal  stimulator  of  the  war  now  existing  between 
the  United  States  and  the  savages,"  as  AVayne  justly 
characterized  him.  The  British  commandant  Major 
William  Campbell,  as  in  duty  bound,  protested  against 
Wayne  taking  post  "almost  within  reach  of  the  guns  of 
this  fort ";  to  w^iich  the  American  general  replied  that 
his '-  fullest  and  most  satisfactorv  answer  was  announced 
to  you  from  the  muzzle  of  my  small  -  arms  yesterday 
morning  in  the  action  against  the  hordes  of  savages  in 
the  vicinity  of  your  post,  which  terminated  gloriously 
for  the  Americans;  but  had  it  continued  until  the  Ind- 
ians, etc.,  were  drove  under  the  influence  of  the  post 

and  guns  you  mention,  they  would  not  much  have  im- 

365 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

peded  tho  progress  of  tlio  victorious  army  under  my 
command ;  as  no  such  post  was  established  at  tho  com- 
mencement of  tho  present  war  between  tho  Indians  and 
tho  United  States."  Major  Campbell  prudently  fore- 
bore  to  resent  tho  insults  which  Wayne  oilered  to  the 
British  flag  by  sending  his  light  infantry'  within  pistol- 
shot  of  tho  fort.  Then  Wayne  ordered  the  British  com- 
mandant to  withdraw  from  that  post ;  and  after  destroy- 
ing everything  even  under  tho  muzzle  of  his  guns,  the 
American  army,  its  purpose  accomplished,  began  its 
homeward  march.  On  his  way  AV^ayne  set  the  iron 
heel  of  war  on  tho  paradise  of  Grand  Glaize,  and  that 
winter  there  was  want  and  sufTering  in  the  Indian  towns 
and  depletion  in  the  stocks  of  British  provisions. 

After  tho  battle  of  Fallen  Timbers,  General  Wayne 
retired  to  Greenville,  where  the  remnant  of  the  Legion 
that  was  retained  in  service  w^ent  into  winter -quar- 
ters. There  he  was  visited  by  various  chiefs  and 
warriors,  to  whom  he  explained  that  the  United  States, 
having  conquered  Great  Britain,  were  entitled  to  the 
possession  of  the  Lake  Posts ;  and  that  the  new 
nation  was  anxious  to  make  peace  with  the  Indians, 
to  protect  them  in  the  possession  of  abundant  hunt- 
ing-grounds, and  to  compensate  them  for  the  lands 
needed  by  the  white  settlers.  The  Indians,  on  their 
part,  had  lost  a  number  of  their  most  warlike  chiefs ; 
they  were  deeply  incensed  at  the  action  of  the  British, 
both  in  closing  Fort  Miamis  to  them  at  the  time  of  their 
great  defeat,  and  also  in  not  coming  to  their  aid  with 
the  soldiers  from  Detroit,  as  McKee  and  the  other 
agents  had  promised  ;  and  already  the  Shawanese  were 


*  Daily  Journal  of  Wayne's  Campaign,  by  Lieutenant  Boyer  (Cin- 
cinnati, 1866),  p.  9. 

366 


T. 


-(  ; 


UNITED   STATES   WII^    NORTHWEST   POSTS 

planning  to  remove  across  the  ^[ississippi.  In  tiie  midst 
of  these  prolonged  negotiations  a  copy  of  the  Jay  Treaty 
arrived,  and  when  the  Indians  found  that  a  definite  date 
was  fixed  for  the  surrender  of  the  posts,  they  no  longer 
hesitated  to  draw  u  boundarv  line  wLioh  surrendered  the 
territory  embraced  in  the  land  grants  already  made  by 
Congress,  together  with  other  lands  about  the  various 
posts  as  set  forth  in  the  treaty  of  Muskingum  or  Fort 
llarmar.  On  August  3,  1705,  General  Wa3Mie  was  able 
to  announce  that  he  had  concluded  "  a  permanent 
peace''  with  the  ten  great  nations  dwelling  within  the 
N^orthwest;  and  nothing  now  remained  but  to  await  the 
day  set  for  the  delivery  of  the  posts.' 

While  General  Wayne  was  preparing  for  his  campaign 
against  the  Indians,  the  Chief -justice  of  the  United 
States  appeared  in  London  as  a  special  envoy  from 
President  Washington  to  compose  those  differences  that 
had  brought  the  two  countries  to  the  verge  of  war. 
There  were  aggravations  on  both  sides.  England  had 
been  thrown  from  her  balance  by  the  French  devolution, 
which  then  was  shaking  every  government  in  the 
civilized  world.  In  the  United  States  a  numerous  and 
noisy  party  espoused  the  cause  of  France  ;  and  Minister 
Genet  had  even  presumed  to  take  an  appeal  from  the 
conservative  Washington  to  the  excitable  American  peo- 
ple. In  the  end  the  dignity  and  individuality  of  this 
nation  were  preserved ;  but  it  took  time  for  the  sober 
sense  of  the  people  to  make  itself  felt.  England,  revolt- 
ing from  the  cruelties  and  horrors  of  Eobespierre,  had 
joined  Austria,  Russia,  Spain,  and  Sardinia  in  a  war  with 
France;  and  in  her  efforts  to  crush  her  rival  had  no 

^  The  full  proceedings  of  the  Treaty  of  Greenville  are  given  in  Jacob 
Burnet's  Notes  on  the  Early  Settlement  of  the  Isorthvcestern  Territory 
(Cincinnati,  1847),  chapters  ix.  to  xii. 

367 


TlIK    xNOUTUWEST    UxNDEU    THREE    FLAGS 

scruples  about  seizing  American  ships  trading  to  French 
ports.  Moreover,  eleven  years  had  ehipsed  since  the  treaty 
of  1783,  and  still  the  posts  were  not  surrendered ;  and  the 
states  were  aggravating  matters  by  legislation  to  pre- 
vent the  collection  of  debts  owed  to  English  merchants. 
Such  was  the  inauspicious  condition  of  atTairs,  when,  on 
June  15, 1794,  John  Jay  informed  Lord  Grenville  of  his 
coming  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  friendship  and  commerce. 
F'ortunately  for  both  countries,  the  negotiators  were 
men  of  more  than  the  ordinary  calibre,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence in  their  informal  discussions  they  speedily  came 
to  terms  that  were  mutually  conciliatory.  The  British 
spoliations  on  American  commerce;  the  debts  due  to 
EnHish  creditors  and  for  any  reason  not  collectable  in 
the  courts,  and  the  damages  due  England  on  account  of 
depredations  of  French  cruisers  fitted  out  in  the  United 
States,  were  to  be  settled  by  commissions;  the  negroes 
carried  away  by  the  British  in  1783  were  not  to  be  paid 
for;  the  Northwestern  posts  were  to  be  surrendered  on 
or  before  June  1,  1797,  but  there  was  to  be  free  inter- 
course across  the  border,  and  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi,  the  duties  on  goods  to  be  uniform  with  those 
paid  at  the  sea-coast  ports  of  entry ;  all  ambiguities  in 
the  boundaries  were  to  be  removed  by  a  commission  of 
survey  ;  American  vessels  were  to  be  allowed  to  trade, 
under  restrictions,  with  the  British  West  Indies  ;  and 
there  were  other  provisions  of  decided  advantage  to  this 
country.  This  treaty,  although  bitterly  assailed  at  first, 
was  ratified  by  the  Senate ;  and  the  House,  on  April  30, 
1790,  agreed  to  the  appropriation  required  to  carry  out 
its  provisions,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  Madison  and 
Gallatin.'    The  Senate,  however,  provided  for  the  sus- 


*  For  a  discussion  of  the  treaty  see  Dr.  James  B.  Angell's  judicial 

368 


JOHN   JAY 


UNITED   STATES  WIN   NORTinVEST   POSTS 

pension  of  the  article  relative  to  "West  Indian  trade,  and, 
pending  the  agreement  of  England  to  the  amendment, 
the  execution  of  the  treaty  was  delayed. 

In  the  spring  of  1700  a  second  Xew  England  colo- 
ny, led  by  Moses  Cleveland,  Augustus  Porter,  and  Seth 
Pease,  assembled  at  Schenectady,  Kew  York,  to  make 
a  wilderness  journey  and  to  plant  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Erie  the  colony  of  New  Connecticut.  From  the  Con- 
necticut legislature  of  1792  came  grants  of  a  half 
million  acres  of  Fire  Lands,  to  be  located  at  the  west 
end  of  the  territory  reserved  in  the  cession  of  the 
state  to  compensate  the  sufferers  from  the  British 
ravages  on  its  coasts ;  and  in  September,  1795,  the 
state  had  sold  to  John  Caldwell,  Jonathan  Brace,  and 
John  Morgan,  as  trustees  for  the  Connecticut  Land 
Company,  three  million  acres  of  its  reserve  at  forty 
cents  per  acre.  Provided  with  quitclaim  deeds,  the 
Connecticut  immigrants  met,  near  Buffalo,  Red  Jacket 
and  the  principal  chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations,  and  from 
them  purchased  the  Indian  rights  of  occupancy  to  the 
entire  reserve  for  £500  worth  of  goods,  to  be  paid  to  the 
Western  Indians;  two  beef  cattle,  and  one  hundred  gal- 
lons of  whiskey,  together  with  the  usual  gifts  and 
feasts.  On  the  nation's  anniv^ersary  the  band  of  fifty 
home-makers  came  to  Conneaut  Creek  :  there  thev  cele- 
brated  the  day  with  a  federal  salute  of  fifteen  rounds 
and  a  sixteenth  for  New  Connecticut ;  then  they  drank 

article  on  the  "DiploniMcy  of  the  United  States"  in  vol.  vii.  of  the 
Narrative  and  Critical  Ilistorij  of  the  United  States;  also  Wiliiam  Jay's 
Life  of  John  Jay  (New  York,  1833),  vol.  i.,  p.  322  ei  seq.  President 
Angell  is  convinced  tiiat  "looking  back  from  our  present  point  of 
view,  we  must  admit  that  the  completion  of  the  negotiation  was  wise 
and  fortunate.'  Henry  Adams,  in  his  Life  of  Albert  Gallatin,  says 
that  Jay's  treaty  "thrust  a  sword  into  the  bod}"-  politic,"  and  he  re- 
gards the  treaty  as  having  forced  the  division  of  parties.  See  p.  159. 
2  a  3G9 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

"several  pails  of  grog,"  and  "supped  and  retired  in 
good  order." 

Beginning  at  once  the  surveys,  General  Cleveland's 
party  coasted  along  the  lake  to  the  Cuj^ahoga,  where, 
on  July  22d,  they  began  the  city  that  bears  the  name 
of  its  founder;  and  by  the  year  ISOO  there  were  thirty- 
two  settlements  on  the  Reserve.* 

^o  sooner  had  the  ratifications  of  Jay's  treaty  been 
exchanged  than,  on  May  2Tth,  General  AVilkinson,  left  in 
command  of  Wayne's  army  at  Greenville,  sent  his  aide- 
de-camp,  Captain  Schaumburg,  to  Colonel  England  at 
Detroit,  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  posts  under  his 
command.  Colonel  England  reg-etted  —  so  he  said — 
that  a  lack  of  orders  from  Lord  Dorchester  would  pre- 
vent him  from  complying  with  General  Wilkinson's 
request ;  and  the  condition  of  the  new  post  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Detroit  was  not  sufficiently  advanced  to  enable 
him  to  name  a  date  for  evacuation.'  This  was  the  last 
ineffectual  demand. 

In  June,  1796,  Captain  Lewis,  despatched  from  Phila- 
delphia on  the  day  that  the  Senate  took  final  action  on 
the  Jay  treaty,  presented  to  Lord  Dorchester  a  demand 
for  the  surrender  of  the  ]S"orthwest  posts.  IS'othing 
could  exceed  the  civility  that  w^as  bestowed  upon  the 
representative  of  the  War  Department  by  Lord  Dor- 
chester's family ;  his  lordship,  then  about  seventy  years 
old,  made  particular  inquiries  as  to  Washington's  health, 
and  "seemed  pleased  to  learn  that  he  w^as  well  and 
looked  well."  Captain  Lewis  could  have  dined  out  for 
a  month  at  Quebec.  At  every  gathering  "  the  first 
toast  was  the  Kins:  of  Great  Britain   and  the  second 


o 


•  Whittlesey's  History  of  Cleveland.    See  also  Garfield's  Oration  on 
the  Northwest  Territory,  "Old  South  Leaflets,"  No.  42. 

5  MicJiigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  vol.  xii.,  p.  220. 

870 


UNITED   STATES  AVIN   NORTHWEST   POSTS 

invariably  the  President."  The  people,  too,  seemed 
pleased  at  the  prospect  of  friendly  intercourse  with  the 
Americans.' 

On  his  way  back  to  Philadelphia,  Captain  Lewis  deliv- 
ered to  Captain  Bruff  at  Albany  the  orders  for  the  evacu- 
ation of  ^Niagara  and  Oswego.''  lie  brought  to  Secretary 
McIIenry  the  British  commander-in-chiefs  order  ad- 
dressed to  the  officers  commanding  the  guard  left  for 
the  protection  of  the  works  and  buildings  at  Forts  Miami, 
Detroit,  and  Michilimackinac,'  and  commanding  each  to 
vacate  his  post ''  to  such  officer  belonging  to  the  forces  of 
the  United  States  as  shall  produce  this  authority  to  you 
for  that  purpose,  who  will  precede  the  troops  destined  to 
garrison  it  by  one  day,  in  order  that  he  may  have  time 
to  view  the  nature  and  condition  of  the  works  and 
buildings."  Congratulating  the  President  on  "the  event 
which  adds  a  large  tract  of  country  and  wide  resources 
to  the  territory  of  the  United  States,"  the  secretary  im- 
mediately despatched  a  special  messenger  to  put  General 
"Wayne  in  possession  of  the  precious  documents. 

The  orders  for  the  surrender  of  Fort  Miami  and  of 
Detroit  were  sent  from  General  Wilkinson  at  Greenville 
to  Lieutenant -colonel  Ilamtramck,  at  Camp  Deposit; 
and  the  latter  lost  no  time  in  putting  them  into  execu- 
tion. Sending  Captain  Henry  de  Butts  to  Detroit  to 
purchase  a  vessel,  Ilamtramck  himself,  on  June  11th, 
"actually  displayed  the  American  stripes  at  Fort  Miami, 

»  State  Department  MSS.,  IMcTIcnry  to  Washington,  June  23,  1796. 

^  State  Department  MSS.,  McIIcnry  to  Washington,  June  27,  1796. 
Niagara  was  surrendered  August  11,  1796.  See  Canadian  Archices, 
1891,  p.  75. 

'State  Department  MSS.,  Adjutant -general  George  Beckwith's 
letter  of  June  2, 1790.  The  Lake  Champlain  posts  and  Oswegatchie 
(Ogdensburg)  had  previously  been  given  up  without  formality.  See 
also  Canadian  Arcliites,  Beckwith  to  McHenry,  June  3, 1790. 

371 


TlIK    NORTHWEST    UNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

and  embarked  the  same  day  with  about  four  hundred 
men  for  Detroit."* 

Captain  Moses  Porter,*  despatched  by  Ilamtramck 
with  a  detachment  of  artillery  and  infantry,  comprising 
sixty-five  men,  embarked  at  the  mouth  of  the  Maumee 
in  a  schooner  of  fiftv  tons  burden  and  in  a  dozen  bat- 
eaux.  Entering  the  Detroit  Eiver  on  the  11th  of  July, 
1796,  they  discovered  first  a  few  Avidely  scattered  houses 
set  along  the  low-lying  shores,  but  as  they  progressed 
they  found  clustered  about  the  new  British  post  some 
twenty  houses,  in  all  stages  of  completion.  The  region 
was  known  as  the  district  of  Maiden,  but  as  yet  the 
name  of  Amherstburg  had  not  been  given  to  the  town, 
and  for  months  it  was  known  simply  as  "  the  new  Brit- 
ish post  and  town  near  the  island  of  Bois  Blanc,"  an  isl- 
and, by -the -way,  that  was  claimed  to  be  within  the 
United  States,  greatly  to  the  disturbance  of  Governor 
Simcoe.'  The  most  considerable  establishment  in  the 
place  belonged  to  the  Indian  agent.  Captain  Elliott ; 
the  lands,  comprising  two  thousand  acres,  were  culti- 
vated in  a  manner  that  would  not  have  been  ''thou5:ht 
meanly  of  even  in  England";  the  house,  standing  about 
two  hundred  yards  from  the  river,  commanded  a  full 
view  of  that  noble  stream  and  of  Lake  Erie.  At  the 
edge  of  the  w^ater  stood  the  council -house,  in  which 
matters  w^ere  discussed  and  decisions  were  reached  the 
echoes  of  wiiich  were  heard  in  the  councils  of  nations 

*  American  TeUgraph,  August  24,  1796.  Letter  of  General  James 
Wilkinson  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  dated  Greenville,  July  16,  1796. 

'  American  Pioneer,  vol.  ii.,  p.  394.    Ilamtramck  to  Wilkinson. 

3  Tiie  ownership  of  the  island  was  not  settled  until  after  the  treaty 
of  Giient  in  1817.  After  the  "War  of  1812  the  question  was  again 
raised. — War  Department  MSS. ;  Protest  of  Colonel  Anthony  But- 
ler, July  1,  1815  ;  and  Andrew  J.  Dallas  to  Colonel  Butler,  May  31, 
1815. 

372 


UNITED   STxVTES   WIN   NORTUWEST   TOSTS 

at  Xew  York  and  London.  On  Bois  Blanc  were  en- 
canaped  hundreds  of  Indians,  curious  and  intent  specta- 
tors of  the  changes  then  in  progress.  Ahead,  the  broad 
water  was  dotted  with  the  swift-darting  Indian  canoes, 
with  here  and  there  the  pleasure-boat  of  some  thrifty 
trader;  islands  of  all  sizes  and  shapes,  their  shores  lined 
with  marshes,  were  strewn  along  the  river;  and  the 
banks  were  without  habitation  save  here  and  there  lit- 
tle knots  of  miserable  Indian  huts.  As  the  flotilla  came 
within  four  miles  of  Detroit  the  houses  became  numer- 
ous ;  there  were  smiling  orchards  of  peach  and  cherry ; 
and  tall  trees  of  the  pomme-caille,  the  favorite  apple  of 
the  country.  Sailing  up  to  the  great  wooden  wharf, 
the  detachment  disembarked,  and  marched  up  one  of 
the  narrow,  unpaved  streets,  with  its  footway  of  squared 
logs  laid  transversely,  thence  through  one  of  the  two 
gates  on  the  water  side  of  the  strong  stockade,  and 
through  the  town  and  up  the  slope  to  Fort  Lernoult, 
with  its  bastioned  corners  from  which  the  cannon  had 
been  removed  to  supply  the  new  post  at  Maiden.  As 
the  troops  passed  up  the  street  crowds  of  barefooted 
Frenchmen  greeted  them  in  a  language  they  did  not  un- 
derstand, and  bevies  of  dark-eyed  French  girls  gazed  de- 
murely from  under  the  wide  brims  of  their  straw  hats, 
anxious  to  discover  whether  the  homespun  -  clad  new- 
comers were  fitted  to  take  the  place  of  the  gorgeous- 
hued  soldiers  and  sailors  whom  the  fate  of  war  had  rel- 
egated to  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Xor  were  Indians 
wanting ;  old  squaws  leading  their  daughters  leered  at 
the  soldiers ;  chiefs  and  warriors  of  many  tribes,  hid- 
eous in  their  paint  and  more  hideous  in  the  wounds  re- 
ceived in  drunken  orgies,  moved  about  with  what  dig- 
nity they  could  command,  or  sat  in  the  sun  smoking 
their  stone  pipes,  waiting  for  General  Wabang  (General 

373 


TlIK    NORTHWEST    UNDER   THREE    FLAGS 

To-morrow)  to  distribute  the  presents  be  was  ever  prom- 
ising and  never  bestowing. 

At  tbe  bour  of  noon'  tbe  last  of  Colonel  England's 
troo],3  made  tbcir  way  to  tbe  ramparts,  and,  loosing 
tiie  lialyards,  tlie  flag  tbat  for  tbirty-four  years  bad 
floated  over  tbe  town  of  Cadillac's  foundation  dropped 
slowly  to  tbe  ground.  AV^bile  tbe  Britisb  soldiers  gatb- 
ered  up  tbe  disbonored  ensign,  eager  Americans  bent 
tbe  Star's  and  Stripes,  and  as  tbe  joyous  folds  of  tbe 
beautiful  banner  streamed  out  on  tbe  July  breeze  a 
cbeer  went  up  from  tbe  little  band  of  United  States 
soldiers,  wbosc  feet  at  last  trod  tbe  soil  made  tbeirs  by 
tbe  conquest  of  Clark,  seventeen  ^^ears  before.  Stand- 
in ":  amonfi:  tbe  indifferent  crowd  tiiat  watcbed  tbe 
cbange  of  flags  were  many  besides  tbe  Detroit -born 
Reynolds^  wbo  would  live  to  see  and  to  rejoice  in  tbe 
da}^  sixteen  years  distant,  wben  tbe  tben  despised  flag 
of  England  would  again  for  a  few  raontbs  wave  over 
tbat  town  and  people.  Detroit  ^vas  essentially  a  for- 
eign city,  a  small  part  Englisb,  tbe  greater  part  French, 
but  not  in  any  degree  c:'  sense  American. 

^  Columbian  Sentinel,  Boston,  August  24,  1796  ;  extract  from  a  let- 
ter of  Captain  Henry  de  Butts  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  dated  Detroit, 
July  14l1i:  "It  is  with  great  pleasure  I  do  myself '.e  honor  of  announc- 
ing to  you  that  on  the  11th  instant,  about  noo'  ,  the  flag  of  the  United 
States  was  displayed  on  the  ramparts  of  De'  .oit,  a  few  minutes  after 
the  works  were  evacuated  b}''  Colonel  Englund  and  the  British  troops 
under  his  command,  and  with  additional  satisfaction  I  inform  5'^ou  that 
the  exchange  was  effected  with  much  propriety  and  harmony  by  both 
parties." 

2  1812;  The  ^Var  and  Its  Moral,  by  William  Coffin  (Montreal,  18G4), 
p.  190.  Reynolds  was  born  in  Detroit,  in  1781 ;  his  father  was  the 
British  commissary.  To  Collin,  who  visited  him  at  his  home  in  IJiIal- 
den  in  18G3,  he  said  :  "I saw  the  British  flag  hauled  down  from  the 
flag-staff  of  Detroit  at  noon,  lltli  July,  1796.  1  saw  it  again  hoisted 
by  Brock,  at  noon  of  Sunday,  16th  August,  1813." 

374 


UNITED   STATES   WIN   NOUTIIWEST   POSTS 

On  July  2.">th  tlio  twonty-toa  American  sloo])  Detroit^ 
Captain  Curry,  arrived  at  Presque  Isle  for  provisions 
and  stores,  and  returned  to  Detroit  for  the  <:^jirrison 
intended  for  ^nchiliniackinac.'  On  the  \(>i\\  of  tliat 
month,  llfty-ei^ht  of  the  merchants,  traders,  and  inliabi- 
tants  of  the  post  had  united  in  an  ad<h'ess  to  tiie  retir- 
ing British  commandant,  ^lajor  William  Doyle,  com- 
mending him  for  the  impartial  manner  in  which  lie  had 
supported  and  protected  the  tnule  of  that  ])lace,  and  for 
the  "invariable  propriety"  with  which  ho  had  acted 
as  magistrate.  Before  taking  passage  for  the  lower 
lakes,  he  had  replied,  on  July  2(Ith,  acknowledging  for 
himself  and  his  officers  the  nniform  support  they  had 
always  experienced  from  tlie  signers  of  the  address,  and 
wishing  every  prosperity  to  the  Canadian  fur -trade.' 
The  actual  evacuation  of  the  post  took  place  early  in 
August,  and  before  the  first  of  September  the  strange 
flag  of  the  United  States  was  snapping  in  the  brisk 
breezes  at  the  meeting-place  of  lakes  Huron  and  Michi- 
gan.=> 

On  the  evening  of  August  10th,  the  Americans  ap- 
peared at  Fort  Niagara,  where  they  were  politely  and 
attentively  received  by  the  British  Captain  Sheafe,  who 
turned  over  the  fort,  and  possession  was  formally  taken 
by  mounting  a  sergeant's  guard.  Kext  morning  the  ar- 
tillery, stores,  and  the  remainder  of  the  garrison  disem- 
barked; at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  11th  the 

*  3f(tssachusetts  Spy,  August  24,  1796. 

^  Quebec  Gazette,  August  25,  1796.  A  similar  address,  dated  July 
6lb,  was  made  to  Colonel  England  by  the  people  of  Detroit,  and  was 
replied  to  by  liim. 

^Albany  Gazette,  September  30,  1796:  "A  letter  from  Detroit,  of 
August  15tb,  says  that  Michilimackinac  is  evacuated  by  the  British, 
and  will  in  the  coming  two  weeks  be  occupied  by  our  troops." 

375 


THE    xXORTlIWEST    UNDER    TllUEK    FLAGS 

Stars  and  Stripes  were  run  up  under  Federal  salute,  and 
the  United  States  came  into  possession  of  the  last  of  the 
frontier  posts.* 

Colonel  John  Francis  ITamtramck,  with  his  command, 
arrived  at  Detroit  on  the  UUh  of  July,  and  immediate- 
ly began  to  mount  his  artillery  in  the  places  made  va- 
cant by  the  removal  of  the  British  cannon,  and  in  all 
possible  ways  to  Americanize  an  old  French  town  filled 
with  British  traders.  Born  in  Canada,  llamtramck  was 
one  of  some  seven  hundred  American  sympathizers  who 
crossed  the  border  to  join  the  Bevolutionary  forces.  En- 
tering the  army  at  the  ago  of  twenty-one,  he  won  a  cap- 
taincy during  the  war;  on  the  organization  of  the  First 
Kegiment  of  Infantry  he  was  appointed  a  lieutenant- 
colonel  by  Washington  in  lTOO,and  as  colonel  he  was  with 
both  St.  Clair  and  AVayne  in  their  Indian  campaigns, 
having  command  of  the  left  wing  of  the  army  at  the 
decisive  battle  of  Fallen  Timbers.  At  Detroit  he  en- 
tered at  once  into  the  spirit  of  the  situation,  and  be- 
came popular  both  with  his  command  and  with  the 
towns-people.  With  his  wife  he  occupied  a  comfortable 
house  in  the  town,  and  until  his  death  in  1803,  at  the 
early  age  of  forty-eight  years,  he  enjoyed  a  popularity 
that  has  kept  his  memory  green  to  this  day." 

*  Albany  Gazette,  September  9,  1796, 

'  The  birthplace  of  llamtramck  is  unknown.  He  wns  born  August 
14, 1754.  and  died  April  11, 1803,  leaving  an  estate  value  J  at  $2138.47, 
which  descended  to  his  widow  Rebecca  llamtramck.  His  home  was 
above  the  old  city  of  Detroit,  in  the  suburb  afterwards  known  as 
Hamtramck.  His  body  was  buried  in  St.  Anne's  Cemetery,  then 
occupying  the  block  on  Jefferson  Avenue  bounded  by  Jefferson  Ave- 
nue, Larned,  Shelby,  and  Griswold  streets,  whence  it  was  removed 
in  1817  to  the  new  St.  Anne's  grounds  on  Congress  Street,  and  in 
1866  was  removed  a  second  time  to  Mount  Elliott  Cemetery.  With 
more  of  truth  than   is  commonly  found  in  such  a  connection,  the 

376 


UNITED   STATES   WIN   NOUTllWKST   TOSTS 

In  the  wako  of  tho  army  of  occupation  camo  General 
Wayno  himself.  After  enjoying  at  his  homo- city  of 
Phihulelphia  the  honors  and  triumphs  of  his  victory  ; 
after  having  experienced  tho  gratification  of  l)eing 
mentioned  in  eulo^jistic  terms  in  President  Washin^j- 
ton's  special  message  to  Congress;  and  after  incur- 
ring tho  persistent  hostility  of  tho  anti  -  Federalists 
and  the  secret  enmity  of  General  Wilkinson,  General 
Wayno  was  despatched  to  tho  frontier  with  the  com- 
bined powers  of  a  civil  commissioner  and  a  military 
commander.  On  August  13th  ho  reached  Detroit,  to  find 
that  before  his  coming  and  without  orders  from  Con- 
gress, the  secretary  of  tho  Xorthwest  Territory,  Win- 
throp  Sargent,  had  visited  Detroit  and  erected  the  coun- 
ty of  Wayne.  Availing  himself  of  tho  absence  from 
the  territory  of  Governor  St.  Clair,  Sargent,  as  acting 
governor,  had  started  for  tho  North,  and  on  August 
15th  had  drawn  the  boundaries  of  Wayne  County,  from 
the  present  site  of  Cleveland,  south  to  Fort  Laurens, 
thence  westward  through  Fort  Wayne  and  the  Chicago 
portage,  thence  north  through  the  sources  of  the  streams 

stone  erected  by  the  officers  of  his  command  bears  record  that,  "  true 
patriotism  and  a  zealous  attachment  to  rational  liberty,  joined  to  a 
laudable  ambition,  led  him  into  military  service  at  an  early  period  of 
his  life.  lie  was  a  soldier  before  he  was  a  man;  he  was  an  active 
participator  in  all  the  dangers,  difficulties,  and  honors  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War;  and  his  heroism  and  uniform  good  conduct  procured 
him  the  attentions  and  personal  thanks  of  the  immortal  Washington. 
The  United  States  in  him  has  lost  a  valuable  officer  and  a  good 
citizen,  and  society  a  useful  and  pleasant  member:  to  his  family  the 
loss  is  incalculable  ;  and  his  friends  will  never  forget  the  memory 
of  Hamtramck." — See  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  vol. 
xiii.,  p.  493;  and  an  address,  on  the  occasion  of  marking  the  grave  of 
Colonel  John  Francis  Hamtramck,  at  Mount  Elliott  Cemetery,  Detroit, 
Michigan,  by  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution,  October  18,  181)7, 
delivered  by  Mr.  R.  Storrs  Willis. 

377 


Tin:    NOirniWKST    UNDKIi    TIIUKK    FLA(iS 

Howinof  \v(>slerlv  into  Lalc(>  INFiclii^jan,  to  tlio  luitional 
l)(>un(l;irv  lin(5  norlli  of  LaUo  Superior.  Makin;^  IV'tcr 
Aiulrjiiii  prolhoiiot.  'y  at  Detroit,  !Siir«;(>nt  coiitiniuid  his 
w;iv  to  MicliiliniJickinac,  wlioro  ho  established  tin;  civil 
nnthority  of  the  f^overnineiit.  Of  these  acts  the  (;ha- 
^riiuMl  St.  (Jlair  learned  most  casually,  hut  he  (M)ntenled 
himself  hy  miM'eiy  intimatiti^  surj)rise  that  Ik^  had  heeii 
foreslaHcd  in  making  the  journey  to  the  northern  hniits 
of  his  government.' 

After  a  fatiguing,  diilicult,  and  (hingerous  journey  of 
t\v(^lve  hundred  miles,  ov(M'  mountains,  rivers,  swamps, 
and  lakes,  (leneral  AVaym^  was  ihittered  hy  his  recep- 
tion on  the  part  of  both  the  garrison  and  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Detroit.  On  his  ap])roach  he  was  inc^t  by  tho 
chiefs  and  warriors  of  numiirous  tribes  of  Indians,  who 
welcomed  their  "father''  by  repeated  volleys  of  mus- 
ketry, ear-piercing  yells,  friendly  shakes  of  the  hand, 
and  other  demonstrations  of  joy,  "  agreeablv  to  tho 
customs  and  usages  of  those  hardy  sons  of  this  wilder- 
ness." When  lie  entered  the  stockaded  town  the  guns 
boomed  a  federal  salute,  and  music  attended  his  prog- 
ress to  the  fort. 

\s  Hennepin  the  Frenchman  and  Hamilton  the  Eng- 
lishman gave  expression  to  their  appreciation  of  the 
beauty  of  Detroit's  situation,  so  this  first  American  com- 
mander found  much  to  admire  in  a  town  that  had  "for- 
merly tilled  an  interesting  ])lace  in  history."  "  Here,  in 
the  centre  of  the  wilderness  of  the  West,"  he  writes, 
"  you  see  ships  or  large  vessels  of  ^var  and  merchantmen 
lying  at  the  wharves  or  sailing  up  and  down  a  pleasant 
river  of  about  one  mile  wide,  as  if  passing  and  repassing 


>  St.  Clair  Papers.    St.  Clair  to  James  Ross,  September  6,  179G  ;  St. 
Clair  to  Roger  Wolcott,  August  30,  1796. 

378 


UNITED   STATES    WIN    NOllTIIWKST    I'OSTS 

to  and  from  tlio  ocean.  Tlio  town  itself  is  a  crowded 
mass  of  franie  or  wooden  buildiii'^s,  generally  from  one 
to  two  and  a  lialf  stories  Iii^li,  many  of  tliem  well  lin- 
islied  and  furnislied,  and  inhabited  by  peo|)le  of  ahnost 
:dl  nntions.  Tlicro  are  a  number  of  wealtliy  and  well- 
iidormcd  meirbants  and  <,^entlemen,  and  elegant,  fasli- 
ionabh',  and  well-bred  women. 

*'  The  streets  are  so  narrow  as  scarcely  to  admit  two 
can  ia<^n's  to  pass  each  other.  'J'he  whole  place  is  sur- 
rounded with  hi;[^h  j)ickets,  with  bastions  at  proper 
distances,  which  ar<i  endowed  with  artillery ;  within 
the  pickets  is  also  a  kind  of  (Mtadel,  which  serves  for 
barracks,  stores,  and  for  j)art  of  the  trooj)s.  '^'ou  enter 
the  town  by  one  main  street,  wiiich  runs  ])a!'alle'l  with 
the  river  and  has  a  gate  at  each  end,  defended  by  a 
block-house;  these  gates  are  shut  every  night  at  sunset, 
and  are  not  op<.ned  ng.'iin  until  sunrise,  in  order  to  pro- 
tect the  citizens  and  their  property  from  insult  or  in- 
jury by  drunken,  disorderly,  or  hostile  Indians.  At 
pirticular  seasons  large  bodies  of  Indianr  assemble  at 
this  ])lace.  Upon  my  arrival  I  found  about  twelve  hun- 
dred, whom  we  have  Irjen  obliged  to  fee<l  from  princi- 
ples of  humanity  as  '.voll  as  policy  at  this  crisis.  Jn  the 
daytime  these  Indians  appear  to  be  perfectly  domesti- 
cated, and  pass  and  repass  along  the  streets  in  common 
with  the  white  inhabitants,  but  regularly  retire  at  re- 
treat-beating without  aversion,  from  long  liabit.  It  is 
probable  thot  this  precaution  of  clearing  the  town  of  *he 
savages  and  closing  the  gates  originated  from  the  at- 
tempt made  by  the  Indians  to  destroy  the  garrison  and 
place  in  the  year  1703,  under  the  conduct  of  the  famous 
chief  Pontiac. 

"  The  fort,  which  has  been  built  since,  stands  upon 

an  eminence  in  the  rear  of  the  town  and  citadel,  and 

379 


THE  NORTHWEST  UNDER  THREE  FLAGS 

commands  both,  as  well  as  all  the  country  in  its  vi- 
cinity. It's  a  regular  earthen  work,  consisting  of  four 
half-bastions,  with  twenty -four  platforms  and  embrasures 
suited  to  heavy  artillery,  with  barracks,  bomb  -  proofs, 
stores,  etc.,  surrounded  by  a  wide,  deep  ditch,  with  pick- 
ets set  perpendicular  in  the  bottom,  and  a  f raise  pro- 
jecting from  the  beam  of  the  parapet  over  the  ditch. 
The  whole  is  encompassed  by  an  abatis,  but  now 
generally  in  a  state  of  ruin,  from  the  effect  of  time 
only,  and  not  from  any  wanton  destruction;  on  the 
contrary,  every  precaution  was  used  to  prevent  any 
injury  or  damage  to  the  works  or  buildings.  In  fact, 
?11  the  works  and  buildings  on  the  American  side  of 
the  line  of  demarcation  have  been  surrendered  up  by 
the  several  British  commandants  to  the  troops  of  the 
United  States,  agreeable  to  treaty,  and  in  the  most  de- 
cent, polite,  and  accommodating  manner,  in  virtue  of  the 
arrangements  previously  made  with  Lord  Dorchester. 

"  This  event  must  afford  the  highest  pleasure  and 
satisfaction  to  every  friend  of  government  and  good 
order,  and  in  particular  to  that  great  and  first  of  men, 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  I  trust  it  will 
produce  a  conviction  to  the  world  that  the  measures 
he  has  uniformly  pursued  to  attain  this  desirable  end 
were  founded  in  wisdom,  and  that  the  best  interests 
of  his  country  have  been  secured  by  that  unshaken 
firmness,  patriotism,  and  virtue  for  which  he  is  univer- 
sally and  justly  admired  and  celebrated ;  a  few  Demon- 
crats  excepted.' 


ij  1 


^Pennsylvania  Historical  Society's  collections  of  Wayne  MSS.; 
General  Anthony  Wayne  to  Isaac  Wayne  ;  Detroit,  September  10, 
1796.  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  John  W.  Jordan,  the  secretary  of  tiie  so- 
ciety, for  furnishing  me  a  copy  of  what  is  believed  to  be  the  only  ex- 
tant communication  written  by  Wayne  while  at  Detroit. 

380 


.^'  ■■        .:T  -      ■■.!:i;     ■':.■'''■; :'  II'' ,'  ;  '  ■>\'-  ■        ■■  ■  i 


GE^EKAL    WAYNE'S    GRAVE 


UNITED   STATES   WIN   NORTHWEST   POSTS 

General  Wayne  remained  at  Detroit  until  Xovember 
17th,  when  he  set  sail  for  Presque  Isle,  on  his  homeward 
v;av.  Tossed  on  the  fitful  billows  of  that  shallow  lake, 
Wayne's  gout  returned  in  violent  form,  and  it  was  with 
difficulty  that  he  was  transferred  to  the  block-house. 
There  he  remained  under  the  devoted  ministrations  of 
Captain  Russell  Bissell  and  Dr.  George  Balfour  until, 
on  December  15th,  death  released  his  indomitable  spirit 
from  the  racked  body.  A  log  block-house,  copied  from 
the  one  Wayne  himself  had  built  there  in  1790,  marks 
the  spot  w^aere  the  brave  soldier  was  laid  at  rest ;  his 
remains,  however,  were  removed  in  1809  to  the  church- 
yard of  St.  David's,  at  Radnor,  Pennsylvania.* 

The  surrender  of  the  posts  by  no  means  involved  the 
surrender  of  the  fur-trade.  Oswego  had  been  founded 
by  Sir  William  Johnson  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  the 
trade  away  from  the  French  on  the  St.  Lawrence;  and 
the  New  York  traders  had  continued  to  enjoy  this 
market  in  spite  of  the  British  garrison  ;  but  at  best  the 
traffic  was  meafjre.  At  Niaf^rara  the  trade  was  of  con- 
siderable  volume ;  but  Newark,  the  town  in  which  the 
traders  lived,  was  on  the  Canadian  side  of  the  river;  and 
when  news  came  that  the  post  was  to  be  surrendered 
the  few  merchants  within  the  fort  limits  crossed  the 
line,  leaving  for  the  time  being  an  empty  fortress. 
Mackinac  was  indeed  an  important  station  of  the  North- 
west Company  of  Montreal,  and  several  independent 
traders  were  there ;  but  on  the  surrender  of  Sinclair's 
fort  the  British  established  themselves  near  bv,  on  the 
Island  of  St.  Joseph,  in  the  highway  between  lakes 
Huron  and  Superior ;  and  although  a  number  of  Ameri- 
can traders  came  to  take  the  vacant  places,  the  intelli- 

I  Stille's  Life  of  Wayne,  p.  344. 
381 


THE    NORTHWEST    TNDER    THREE    FLAGS 

gence,  the  trade  connections,  and  the  capital  of  an  Astor 
were  necessary  before  competition  with  the  Montreal 
merchants  could  become  effective.'  Of  all  the  posts 
given  up,  Detroit  was  the  most  important.  At  the  time 
of  the  surrender  the  town  contained  upward  of  twelve 
hundred  people;  but  many  of  the  traders  removed  to 
the  new  British  post  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  many 
of  those  who  remained  hesitated  to  become  American 
citizens.  Indeed,  the  Jay  treaty  made  it  of  no  advan- 
tage to  change  one's  nationality.  The  departure  of  the 
traders  and  garrison  gave  house-room  to  the  United 
States  officers,  not  a  few  of  whom  appropriated  to  their 
own  use  houses  and  stores  that  had  been  built  on  lands 
granted  illegally  by  the  various  post-commanders ;  and 
the  Americans  even  went  so  far  as  to  compel  the  sub- 
jects of  Great  Britain  to  serve  in  the  militia,  a  burden 
that  caused  them  to  appeal  to  the  British  minister."* 

Tradition  has  it  that  on  the  appearance  of  the  Ameri- 
cans at  Detroit,  Simon  Girty,  in  his  haste  to  escape  from 
possible  vengeance,  swam  his  horse  across  the  river,  and 
galloped  to  his  farm  near  the  mouth  of  that  stream. 
As  an  employe  of  the  British  Indian  department  he  con- 
tinued to  urge  the  savages  to  withstand  the  encroach- 

*  Tlie  romantic  side  of  the  American  fur-trade  at  Mackinac  Las  been 
related  in  Constance  Fenimore  Woolson's  novel,  Anne;  while  the 
charm  and  witchery  of  the  Lake  region  finds  its  subtlest  expression  in 
Miss  Woolson's  Castle  Noicltere :  Lake-country  Sketches. 

2  Travels  through  the  States  of  North  America,  and  the  Provinces 
of  Tipper  and  Lower  Canada,  during  the  years  1795,  1796,  1797 ;  by 
Isaac  Weld,  Jr.  Fourth  edition  (London,  1807),  vol.  ii.,  letters  xxxii. 
and  xxxiii.  These  letters  contain  the  acute  observations  of  an  Eng- 
lishman who,  with  all  his  prejudices,  saw  matters  in  a  truer  light 
than  did  Judge  Jacob  Burnett,  whose  often-quoted  description  of  De- 
troit at  this  time  is  as  near  the  truth  as  a  clever  caricature  is  like 


the  original. 


383 


UNITED   STATES  ^\IS   NORTHWEST   POSTS 

ments  of  the  Americans  on  the  territory  north  of  the 
Ohio;  in  January,  1791,  he  led  the  Indians  in  tiieir 
attack  on  Dunlap's  Station,  on  the  Great  Miami ;  and 
he  was  a  participant  in  the  frightful  tortures  inflicted 
by  the  Indians  on  Abner  Uunt,  by  way  of  revenge  for 
their  ill  success.  At  St.  Clair's  defeat  Girty  led  the 
Wyandottes,  looking  on  at  the  scalping  of  General  But- 
ler, and  sharing  in  the  booty  and  prisoners.  It  is  said 
that  he  saved  the  life  of  William  ^lay,  a  soldier  who 
bore  a  Hag  of  truce  to  the  Indians,  and  that  May  after- 
wards became  a  vessel-captain  in  the  service  of  McKee 
and  Elliott.  In  June,  1791r,  Girty  aided  McKee  in  plan- 
ning the  unsuccessful  Indian  attack  on  Fort  Eecovery; 
and  on  August  20th  the  three  renegades — Girty,  ^IcKee, 
and  Elliott  —  watched  from  a  safe  distance  Wavne's 
crushing  defeat  of  the  savages  at  Fallen  Timbers.  For 
the  time  being  the  Indians  were  whipped  into  submis- 
sion ;  and  it  was  all  in  vain  that  the  British  agents  fed 
and  clothed  the  homeless  savages,  and  loaded  the  chiefs 
with  presents.  The  utmost  that  they  and  Captain  Brant 
could  do  was  to  prevent  several  tribes  from  joining  in 
the  treaty  of  Greenville ;  but  in  so  doing  they  covered 
the  embers  for  future  use.  Girty  himself  continued  to 
be  employed  as  the  king's  interpreter;  he  had  family 
troubles  caused  by  his  drunkenness;  he  lived  through 
the  War  of  1812,  but  by  reason  of  blindness  he  could 
take  no  part  in  the  struggles  that  went  on  about  him ; 
and  on  February  18,  1818,  he  died  in  the  arms  of  his 
forgiving  wife,  and  w^as  buried  on  his  farm  in  Maiden.* 
The  British  retained  command  of  the  Grand  Portage 
of  Lake  Superior,  and  of  the  Ottawa  River  route  to  and 
from  the  upper  country;  their  new  fort  at  Maiden  and 

'  Butterfield's  Uistory  of  the  Girtys,  p.  322. 

383 


THE    NORTHWEST    UNDER   THREE    FLAGS 

the  block-house  on  Bois  Blanc  Island  commanded  the 
channels  of  the  Detroit  River,  as  General  Hull  was  to 
discover  to  his  cost;  and  the  British  fort  at  Niagara 
was  built  so  as  to  toss  shot  down  into  the  American 
fortress.  All  these  points  were  to  prove  of  decided 
advantage  to  the  British  when  the  aggravations  that 
never  were  wanting  finally  provoked  the  War  of  1812. 
During  the  twenty-two  momentous  years  that  elapsed 
between  Lord  Dunmore's  ^var  in  1774:  and  the  surren- 
der of  the  Northwest  posts  in  1796,  the  Revolution  had 
been  fought  through  eight  trying  years;  the  North- 
west had  been  conquered  by  George  Rogers  Clark,  and 
through  the  efforts  of  Jay  and  Franklin  and  Adams 
had  been  made  the  first  addition  to  the  territories  of 
the  new  nation  of  the  United  States ;  the  land  claims  of 
the  states  had  been  surrendered  to  the  federal  govern- 
ment, and  the  new  territory  had  been  dedicated  to  free- 
dom, with  large  provisions  for  education  ;  the  Ohio  had 
become  a  highway  of  traffic  and  of  immigration ;  on 
the  Muskingum  and  on  Lake  Erie  New  England  colo- 
nies had  been  planted  under  such  conditions  and  with 
such  strength  as  to  make  New  England  ideas  the  domi- 
nant force  throughout  Ohio  even  to  this  day ;  after  two 
disastrous  failures  the  Indians  had  been  conquered 
though  not  subdued ;  and  the  forces  of  England  had 
been  removed  across  the  boundary-line.  It  was  per- 
haps natural  that  there  should  be  a  reaction  after  such 
rapid  expansion.  England,  made  sullen  and  vindictive 
by  the  rapid  growth  of  the  United  States,  by  pres- 
ents and  subsidies  kept  a  hold  over  the  savages  of  the 
Northwest;  and  the  tremendous  power  of  that  rich 
and  proud  nation  was  felt  particularly  along  the  fron- 
tier, w^here  the  poverty  and  the  meagre  resources  of  the 
new  nation  were  most  apparent.    When  in  1812  Eng- 

384 


UNITED   STATES  WIN   NORTHWEST  POSTS 

land  and  America  for  a  second  time  grappled  with  each 
other  in  war,  the  northwestern  frontier  from  Niagara 
to  Mackinac  was  called  to  receive  the  first  shock  of 
combat,  and  to  experience  the  horrors  of  savage  war- 
fare to  an  extent  unparalleled  during  the  Revolution. 
Far-off  Kentucky  was  made  to  "  Remember  the  River 
Raisin";  and  the  ignominious  surrender  of  Detroit  and 
the  massacre  at  Mackinac  were  to  be  atoned  for  bv 
Perry's  victory  of  Lake  Erie  and  Harrison's  triumph  on 
the  Thames. 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Edward,  Lieutenant-govern- 
or, at  Viiicciiiies,  211. 

Ahercronibio,  Defeat  of,  100,  245. 

A(]ain3,  Dr.  Herbert  H.,  317. 

Aduiiis,  Henry,  310,  3l')'J. 

Adams,  Jolm,  elected  peace  commis- 
sioner, 281,  283,  284,  384. 

Aix-la-Cliapelle,  Treaty  of,  74,  75, 1.54. 

Albany  convention  of  June,  1754,  90. 


Darthe,  Pierre,  132. 

Baton  lionge,  258. 

Day  des  I'uants.     (See  Green  Bav.) 

Beaubien,  Cliarles,  209. 

Beanbien  fan)ily,  OnViii  of,  122. 

Beaujeii  command.^  French  at  Brad- 

dock's  defeat.  Ort. 
Beauvai^,  the  riehe^t  man  in  Illinois 

country,  170. 


Alexandria,  Braddock's  army  at,  95,  |  Beaver,  Pennsylvania,  157. 


115 


Algonquin  Indians,  3,  7,  15. 
Allen,  Etiian,  245. 
Allouez,  Claude,  21. 

Amherst,  General  Jeffrey  (Baron  Am-  j  Belestre  (or  BeletixO   10'>    10'? 
herst),  100,  106,  131,  147,  148,  149,    Belle  Prairie,  352.  "' 


Beekwith,  Major  George,  British  ppv, 
Reports  of,  in  regard  to  the  United 
States,  307,  308. 

Bedford,  Pennsylvajiia,  129. 


368. 


152. 

Amherstbu rg,  372. 

Andrain,  Peter,  378. 

Angell,  Dr.  James  B., 

Arkansas  River,  Discovery  of,  26. 

Armstrong,  John,  33. 

Army  of  the  United  States,  Size  of,  in 

1787,  344. 
Asatanik  iioes    overland    to   Hudson 

Bay,  12.^ 
Ashland,  W'isconsin,  21, 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  295,  382. 
Aubry,  Spanish  commandant  at  New 

Orleans,  172. 
Aveneau,  father,  47. 

Baby,  M.,  warns  Gladwin  of  Indian 

treachery,  130. 
Baltimore  and  Chesapeake  Canal,  311. 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  311. 
Bancroft,  George,  24,  25. 
Barlow,  Joel,  343. 
Barre,  Colonel  Isaac,  opposes  Quebec 

Bill,  201. 


Benton,  Tiiomas  If  ,  ISO. 

Bienville.    (See  Celeron.) 

"Big  Knives,"  219. 

Billon,  F.  L.,  256. 

Bird,  Lieutenant  Henry,  plans  fort  at 
Detroit,  250;  expeditions  of,  250. 
252.  ' 

i  Birnev,  Thomas,  77. 
[  Bli.ek  Hawk  War,  40. 

Blair,  Francis  P.,  76. 

Blair,  Montgomery,  76. 

Blue  Licks,  Slaugliter  at,  275. 

Boiry,  Colonel  L.  V.,  1  73. 

Bois  Bianc  Island,  31,  59,  348,  372 
384.  '       '         ' 

Bolivar,  251. 

Bolton.  Colonel,  228. 

Bonne,  Louis  de,  61. 

Boone,  Daniel,  185,  193;  at  Detroit, 

2<»9.  ' 

Boone,  Squire,  185. 
Bosseron,  208. 
Boston,  Troubles  at,  186,  280;  evaa 

uation  of,  331. 


387 


INDEX 


Botetourt,  Lord,  186. 

Boundaries  in  treaty  of  1783,  282-9. 

Boiuiuet,  Colonel  Henry,  arrives  in 
America,  KX);  at  Fort  Pitt,  1)>6, 
131 ;  invited  to  join  Ohio  Company, 
14t);  attempts  to  remove  settlers, 
149;  his  proclamation,  147,  148, 
151 ;  thinks  Ohio  project  a  bubble, 
150;  proposes  separate  colony  on 
the  Oliio,  147,  161  ;  liis  victory  at 
Bushy  Hun,  152;  early  life  of,  154, 
155;  his  acquaintance  with  Miss 
Willinj^,  155;  his  expedition  to  the 
Muskinf^um,  150-105;  ni»  promo- 
ti(m  and  death,  102,  1«3,  247,  337, 
363. 

Bouquet  expedition,  Accounts  of,  155, 
245. 

Bouquet  Papers,  276. 

Bownjan,  Major  John,  219,  220,  234, 
251. 

Brace,  Jonathan,  369. 

Braddock,  General  Edward,  appears 
on  the  Potomac,  92 ;  summons  the 
royal  governors  to  meet  him  at  Alex- 
andria—  his  character  and  train- 
ing, 93 ;  his  boast,  94 ;  defeat  and 
death  of,  97,  115,  167,  290,  303. 

Braddock's  road,  Dis[)ute  between 
Washington  and  Bouquet  as  to, 
101,  150. 

Bradstrcet,  Colonel  John,  makes  peace 
with  Lake  Indians — the  peace  re- 
pudiated, 139;  reaches  Detroit,  139, 
156. 

Brady,  Thomas,  258. 

Brandy,  Indian  demand  for,  44  ;  price 
of,  at  Detroit,  53. 

Brant,  Joseph,  202,  275;  forms  con- 
spiracy against  Americans,  299 ;  a 
social  lion  in  England,  3uO;  holds 
council  at  Detroit — his  ultimatum, 
301  ;  his  Indian  policy  acceptable 
to  England,  303,  306,  345,  348,  351, 
352,  301,  383. 

Breba?uf,  Jean  de,  4. 

Brodhead,  Colonel  Daniel,  242,  264, 
267. 

Brown,  B.  Gratz,  76. 

Bruff,  Captain,  receives  surrender  of 
Niagara  and  Oswego,  871. 

Brule,  Etienne,  his  wanderings,  2. 

Brymer,  Douglas,  297. 


Buffalo,  N'ew  York,  309. 

Bulliit,  Thomas,  184. 

"Bunch  of  (irapes"  tavern,  The,  333, 
331. 

iiurgoyne's  defeat,  226,  281. 

Burke,  Edmurtd,  01,  7o,  141  ;  opposes 
Quebec  Bill  —  lixes  boundaries  of 
New  York,  202,  283,  300,  318. 

Burke,  William,  argues  for  retention 
of  Guuduloupe  instead  of  Canada, 
141. 

Burnett,  Judge  Jacob,  231,  382. 

Burton,  Clarence  M.,  his  Cadillac  pa- 
pers, 50,  112. 

Bushy  Uun,  Battle  at,  152,  154. 

Butler,  Captain  E<lward,  300. 

Builer,  General  Richard,  299,  360. 

Butler,  Indian  trader,  188. 

Butler's  Rangers,  262. 

Butlertield,  Consul  Willshire,  6  ;  as  to 
Crawford  expedition,  209. 

Cauots,  Voyages  of  the,  63. 

Cadillac,  Antuine  de  Lamothe,  40; 
character  of,  41;  puts  Iroquois 
messengers  to  death,  42;  plans  for 
a  settlement  on  the  Detroit,  43 ; 
opposition  of  the  Jesuits,  44 ;  per- 
suades Count  Pontchartrain  to  grant 
concessions  at  Detroit,  44 ;  founds 
Detroit,  40 ;  objects  to  enforcing 
liquor  regulations,  50 ;  his  early 
life,  50;  his  marriage,  50;  cidldren 
of,  51  ;  prosperity  ot  his  enterprise, 
52  ;  excessive  charges  for  land,  52  ; 
obtains  trading  privileges,  55  ;  his 
appearance,  55;  ordered  to  Louisi- 
ana, 55,  374. 

Cadillac,  Madame,  joins  her  husband 
at  Detroit,  49,  55. 

Cahokia,  109,  215,  220,  257,  258,  201. 

Caldwell,  John,  secures  religious  toler- 
ation in  Virginia,  72,  309. 

Caldwell,  Lieutenant,  211. 

Calhoun,  John  Caldwell,  72. 

Callieres,  Governor  of  New  France, 
43. 

Calve,  a  French  trader,  256. 

Camp  Hobson's  Choice,  363. 

Campbell,  Captain  Donald,  comman- 
dant at  Detroit,  107 ;  detained  by 
Pontiao,  122;  murder  of,  131, 

Campbell,  Uenry  Colin,  11,  13,  16. 


388 


INDEX 


Campbell,  Major  William,  nHtlsh 
comTDuiider  iit  Foit  Mitiiiii,  8U5. 

Cuijiida,  C'liiinicter  of  settlers  In,  lOft; 
justice  in,  lU? ;  loyalty  to  the  crown, 
198;  population  of,  2()3;  invited 
to  join  the  Anierieun  colonies  in 
the  Kevolution,  iiOB;  cession,  of  pro- 
posed, 288  ;  friendly  feeliiii;  in, 
towards  the  United  States,  371. 

Canadiiin  Pacific  Railway,  29. 

Carheil,  Father  Stephen  de,  refuses  to 
leave  Michiliinackinac,  47;  on  the 
lifHior  (pieslion,  48. 

Carleton,  Sir  (luy,  succeeds  Murray  as 
Governor  at  Qufbcc,  106  ;  revives 
old  laws  of  Canada,  107;  approves 
Quebec  Hill,  100;  testimony  of,  be- 
fore House  of  Commons,  202 ;  re- 
called, 215,  222,  228,  247,  254,  205. 
{See  also  Lord  Dorchester.) 

Carlisle,  Fred.,  132. 

Carlisle,  Pennsylvania,  129. 

Carlylc,  Colonel  John,  his  opinion  of 
Croghan,  167. 

Carrin;rton,  Edward,  326. 

Carroll,  Charles,  205. 

Carroll,  Rev.  John,  205. 

Carteret,  Sir  George,  13, 

Cartler,  Jacfjues,  explores  the  St. 
Lawrence,  2,  G3. 

Carver,  Jonathan,  his  story  of  the  Pon- 
tiac  conspiracy,  113;  his  travels 
through  North  America,  113,  320. 

Cass,  General  Lewis,  18,  45  ;  secures 
documents  relating  to  the  North- 
west, 40,  113. 

Casse  familv,  50. 

Castcl  Sarrasin,  55,  223. 

Catharine  H.  of  Russia,  282. 

Cathay,  5,  204. 

Catherwood,  Mary  Ilartwell,  129. 

Cavendish,  Sir  Henry,  reports  debates 
on  Quebec  Bill,  144. 

Cealle,  Carrigan  de,  60. 

Celeron  de  Bienville  takes  possession 
of  the  Ohio  country,  74  ;  ordered  to 
drive  the  English  from  the  North- 
west, 82,  88. 

Chacornacle,  Cadillac's  lieutenant,  45. 

Champignv,  Intendant  of  New  France, 
43. 

Champlain,  2,  5. 

Chaney,  Henry  A.,  330. 


Chauning,  Professor  Edward.  821. 

Chapoton,  Jean  Baptiste,  2uS. 

Chapoion  fannly,  69. 

Chase,  Samuel, '2o6. 

Chatham,  Euil  of,  opposes  Quebec 
Act,  109;  opposes  American  inde- 
pendence, '^79.  {See  aluo  Pitt, 
William.) 

Che(pian)egon  Bav,  20,  22. 

Cherokees,  177,  181,  188,  210. 

Cherubin,  Father,  56. 

Chevalier,  Louis,  2:)7,  259,  261. 

Chickasaws,  166,  211. 

Chillicothe,  251. 

Chippewas  capture  Michilimackinac, 
122,  128,  158,  210,  270. 

Choctaw  Indians,  241. 

Choiseul  encourages  colonies  to  revolt, 
280. 

Chouart,  Medard,eomes  to NcwFrancc, 
0.  (S<e  also  Radisson  and  (iiosseil- 
liers.) 

Chouteau,  Auguste,  a  founder  of  St 
Louis,  169,  173,  256. 

Chrisiinos  Indians,  21,  23. 

Christmas  celebrated  in  the  Ohio 
countrv,  77. 

Cincinnati,  318,  355,  363. 

Clapham,  John,  Minder  of,  107. 

Clara  d'Assisi,  Saint,  32. 

Clark,  George  Rogers,  with  Cresap  at 
Wheeling,  101  ;  in  Dunmore  war, 
103;  early  life  of,  2h);  plans  con- 
quest of  the  Northwest,  217  ;  sends 
spies  to  Illinois  country,  218;  capt- 
ures Kaskaskia,  219;  capture  of 
Vincennes,  232  -  237  ;  plans  to 
march  on  Detroit,  238 ;  Pickaway 
raid,  253,  261  ;  leads  force  to  Vin- 
cennes, 308 ;  his  bad  habits,  308, 
316,  322,  338,  374,  384. 

Clav,  Ilenrv,  37. 

Clerguc,  F.'  11.^  204. 

Cleveland,  Moses,  369. 

Cleveland,  Ohio,  167;  founded,  370. 

Clinch  River,  18.1. 

Clinton,  Governor  George,  296,  S09. 

Coal  in  the  Ohio  country,  02. 

Coffin,  William,  374. 

Colonies,  Jealousies  among,  142. 

Company  of  the  Colony,  46,  51,  53. 

Cond6,  Prince,  30. 

Congress,  recommends  that  Virginia 


389 


INDEX 


close  her  land  office,  SIT;  declara- 
tion of,  as  to  new  States  hi  Western 
territory,  318 ;  provides  for  sale  of 
ceded  lands,  .318;  asks  Virginia  to 
make  more  favorable  olTcr  of  ces- 
sion, S20. 

Connecticut,  8 ;  boundaries  of,  06 ; 
ofrers  to  cede  her  Western  ands, 
318;  sells  reserved  lands,  321; 
gains  by  her  cession,  321. 

Connecticut  Land  Company,  309. 

Connecticut  Reserve,  321,  322. 

Conolly,  Dr.  Joiin,  in  command  at  Fort 
Pitt,  180;  calls  on  settlers  to  repel 
Shawaiiese  raids,  188,  105,  212,  338. 

ContrecdHir  captures  fort  aL  forks  of 
tiie  Ohio,  89. 

Coolev,  Thomas  M.,  327. 

Copper,  2,  22,  25,  47. 

Corn-planter,  299. 

Cornstalk,  Sha\vane=e  chief,  at  the 
battle  of  Point  Pleasant,  190;  as- 
sents to  Dunmore  peace,  192. 

Cornwallis,  Lord,  Surrender  of,  279. 

Conreurs  de  bois,  21. 

Craigie  house,  343. 

Cramahe,  Lieutenant-governor,  at 
Quebec,  197. 

Crawford,  Colonel  William,  with 
Washington  on  the  Ohio,  184; 
friend  of  Washington,  270;  defeat 
of,  272;  torture  of,  274. 

Cresap,  Captain  Michael,  ISS;  early 
life  of,  189;  joins  Washington  at 
Cambridge,  193;  his '\\\th,  193. 

Cresap,  Culonel  Thomas,  72,  70,  145, 
140,  147,  150,  153;  sketch  of,  188. 

Croghan,  George,  70,  100,  151;  his 
journey  to  Illinois  countrv,  102;  his 
journals,  103;  sketch  of,"  107.  108, 
172,  180;  with  Warhington,  1S4. 

Cromwell,  68. 

Cro\^'n  Point,  94. 

Cuillerier,  the  family,  60,  122,  126; 
M.  Cuillerier,  French  trader  at  De- 
troit, 122,  120;  Mademoiselle  Cuil- 
lerier, lOe,  112. 

Culpeper  gran:,  09. 

Cumberland  River,  185. 

Curran,  Barnaby,  70,  85. 

Custom  of  Paris',  324. 

Cutler,  Rev.  Manasseh,  proposes  to 
buy  Western  lands,  329,  330,  332 ; 


secures   passage   of   Ordinai.-c   of 

1787,  333,  342,  341. 
Cuttawa  River.  {Sec  Kentucky  River.) 
Cuyler,  Lieutenant,  127. 

D'AnnADiE,  French  Governor  at  New 
Orleans,  172. 

Dablon,  Claude,  22,  24. 

D'Aigrement,  Report  of,  as  to  Detroit, 
48,  52. 

Dalvell,  Captain,  reinforces  Detroit, 
132;  killed  at  Bloody  Run,  133. 

Dane,  Nathan,  320  ;  proposes  amend- 
ment excluding  slavery  from  North- 
west, 327 ;  his  work  on  Ordinance 
of  1787,328. 

D'Aranda'i  oninion  of  treaty  of  1783, 
290. 

Dartmouth,  Lord,  198;  prepares  Que- 
bec bill,  199,  205;  succeeds  Hills- 
borough, 183. 

Daumont,  Simon  Fran9ois.  {See  Saint 
Lusson.) 

Davers,  Sir  Robert,  110,  119. 

Davis,  Andrew  McFirland,  270. 

Deane,  Silas,  suggests  sale  of  North- 
west lands,  315. 

De  Butts,  Captain  Henry,  371. 

Dejean,  Philip,  judge  at  Detroit,  229, 
235,  230,  237. 

Delawares,  78,  85,  150,  157,  100,  102, 
177,  180,  185,  210,  212,  203;  vil- 
lages bi.rned,  267,  270,  272,  273, 
277,  304. 

Deiiiaux,  Cherubin  de,  54. 

De  Peyster,  General  J.  Watts,  223. 

De  Pevst^r,  Major  Arent  Schuvler, 
211,"  221  ;  ear'y  life  of,  221  ;'  his 
appearance  and  character,  221  ;  his 
marriage,  222 ;  his  poems,  222 ; 
commands  a'  Detroit,  253,  200; 
kindne.'  to  -.^merican  prisoners, 
260;  .  -.ishes  men  and  amm  •;'- 
tion  to  oppose  Crawford's  expedi- 
tion, 270  ;  his  opinion  of  the  Mora- 
vian massacre  and  Crawford  tortme, 
274;  thitdcs  ])eace  in  the  Northwest 
impossible,  277;  meets  Brant,  300; 
transferred  to  Niagara,  313;  re- 
turns to  England,  313;  his  life  in 
Scotland,  313;  nis  poetical  contest 
with  Robert  Burns,  314;  death  of, 
314. 


390 


INDEX 


DerruisSOii'i,  60. 

De  Soto,  25. 

Detroit,  founded  by  Cadillac,  45;  Jes- 
uit hostility  to,  47;  tire  at,  51  ;  be- 
sieged by  Imii.iiirf,  5G  ;  surrendered 
to  English,  102  ;  society  at,  107  ; 
attacked  by  rontiac,  110;  capital, 
of  the  Northwest,  205;  Ilauiillon'.s 
description  of,  200  ;  fort  at,  208, 
218;  Clark  plans  capture  of,  2oS, 
242  ;  Indians  at,  21'J ;  Fort  Lernoult 
built,  250  ;  attack  on,  planned,  2G'J  ; 
outlet  for  trade  of,  310,  340  ;  sur- 
rendered, 371  ;  description  of,  by 
General  Wayne,  378,  379,  380. 

Detroit  country,  Conferences  in,  39. 

Detroit  River  discovered,  25,  31. 

De  Yierville,  227. 

Dieskau  at  Lake  George,  03. 

Dinwiddle,  Governor,  81  ;  defends 
Virginia  frontiers,  84 ;  seeks  aid 
against  the  French,  80. 

Dongan,  Governor  of  Xew  York,  at- 
tempts to  capture  Miehilimackinac, 
39. 

Dorchester,  Lord,  assumes  governor- 
ship of  Canada,  302;  insists  on 
holding  Northwestern  posts,  303, 
304 ;  his  high  character,  305  ;  his 
friendship  with  Wolfe,  305 ;  his 
Indian  policy,  300,  307,  345 ;  dis- 
turbed at  United  States  military 
preparations,  347,  352 ;  orders  sur- 
render of  Northwest  posts,  370. 

Doughty,  Major,  builds  Fort  Ilarmar, 
344. 

Doyle,  Major  William,  surrenders 
Miehilimackinac,  375. 

Draper,  Lyman  C,  173,  180,  213,  224. 

Dubuisson,  Joseph  Guyon,  deicnds 
Detroit  against  Indians,  55. 

Ducharme,  M.,  250. 

Ducr,  Colonel  William,  343. 

Duff,  John,  218. 

Dugue,  M.,  45. 

Du  Juanay,  Father,  24. 

Du  Lhut  builds  Fort  St.  Joseph  en  St. 
Clair  River,  39. 

Dunmore,  Earl  of,  185;  his  perplexi- 
ty, 185 ;  interested  in  Western  lands, 
187 ;  marches  against  Indians,  180 ; 
makes  peace,  101  ;  honors  to,  192, 
193,  212,  210,  217,  320,  338. 


Dunmore,  The,  sloop-of-war,  222. 

Dunmore's  war.  Causes  of,  188;  re- 
sults of,  104,  212,  384. 

Duquesne,  Governor  of  New  France, 
prepares  to  drive  the  English  from 
the  Ohio  country,  84,  88. 

Durautavc,  30. 

Easto.v,  Treaty  of,  101,  140,  147,  151. 

Edison, Thomas  A.,  begins  experiments 
at  i'ort  Gratiot,  40. 

Education  in  the  Northwest,  329. 

Et'l  River,  174. 

Pilizabeth,  Queen,  04. 

Elliott,  Mutthew,  214,  202,  372. 

Elliott,  Richard  R.,  51,  GO,  115. 

Embarrass  River,  231,  233. 

England,  Colonel,  commandant  at  De- 
troit, declines  to  surrender  the  post, 

O/O,     Oti. 

England,  Strength  of,  in  America,  8 ; 
attempts  to  gain  the  Northwest,  38, 
30  ;  furnishes  cheapest  markets,  44, 
53 ;  her  title  to  tlie  Northwest,  04, 
00  ;  English  traders  in  Ohio  country, 
82;  English  and  French  policies 
contrasted,  80;  makes  national  issue 
of  French  invasion  of  the  North- 
west, 02;  defeats  of,  90;  victoiics 
of,  100;  gains  in  Seven  Years'  War, 
141  ;  prefers  to  give  up  territory  to 
United  States,  289;  effects  of  reten- 
tion of  Western  posts,  304  ;  pre- 
pared to  go  to  war  to  retain  North- 
west posts,  3<)7. 

English,  William  Ilayden,  220. 

Established  Church,  Opposition  to,  80. 

Etherington,  Captain  George,  128,  225. 

Fairfax,  Honorable  William,  09. 

Fairfax,  Lord,  CO. 

Fallen  Timbers,  213;  battle  of,  300. 

Falls  of  the  Ohio,  70. 

Farmer,  Silas,  50. 

Farquier,  Lieutenant-governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, 148,  149,  150. 

Fearing,  Paul,  first  lawyer  in  the 
Northwest  territorv,  342. 

Field,  Colonel  John, '2 13. 

Finley,  John,  explores  Kentucky,  185. 

Fitzhngh,  Henry,  184. 

Floridas,  The,  exchanged  for  Cuba, 
111,  144. 


391 


INDEX 


Forbes,  General  John,  forces  the  evac- 
uation of  Fort  Duquesne,  100;  suc- 
cess and  death  of,  102,  147,  150, 
115,  270. 

Force,  Peter,  354. 

Ford,  Captain  Henry  A.,  266. 

Forts  :—Chartre.s  82,  101,  164,  168, 
170,  171 ;  surrendered  to  the  Eng- 
lish, 255;  Cr^vecorur,  36,  168; 
Defiance,  364;  Duquesne,  100, 101; 
Frontenac,  35  ;  Gage,  170,  215,  219; 
Gower,  193;  Gratiot,  40;  Hamilton, 
353;  Harmar,  335,  344,  353;  treaty 
of,  346, 367;  Jefferson,  239 ;  K'^ox, 
353 ;  Laurens!,  251,  252 ;  abandoned, 
267;  Lcrnoult,  249,  348;  Mackinac, 
254;  Mclntosli,  251;  abandoned, 
267;  treaty  of,  346  ;  Miami,  126, 
366;  surrendered,  371  ;  Necessity, 
151;  Ontario,  347;  Orange,  10; 
Ouiatanon,  166, 167,  168, 174 ;  Pat- 
rick Henry,  238 ;  Pitt  {see  also  Pitts- 
buig),  invested  by  Indians,  152, 185; 
name  changed  to  Fort  Dunmore, 
212;  Pontchartniin,  82;  Recoverv, 
363;  Sackville,  234,  235;  Sandusky 
captured,  126;  Stanwix,  treaty  of, 
180,  182,  299,  352;  Steuben,  353; 
St.  Cliarles,  256;  St.  Joseph  capt- 
ured, 127;  St.  Josepli,  on  the  St. 
Clair,  40;  Washington,  348,  353; 
Wayne,  350 ;  William,  294. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  opposes  Quebec 
bill,  201,  283,  290,  300. 

Fox  River,  5,  25. 

France,  Numerical  strength  of,  in  Amer- 
ica, 8 ;  assumes  the  aggressive  in  the 
Northwest,  38 ;  economic  policy  of, 
46 ;  her  claims  to  the  Northwest,  63 ; 
takes  possession  of  Ohio  country, 
74  ;  losses  in  Seven  Years'  War,  141; 
opposes  American  extension,  280. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  his  plan  for  union 
of  the  colonies,  91 ;  plans  colonies 
on  the  Ohio,  92 ;  secures  supplies 
for  Braddock,  94 ;  argues  for  reten- 
tion of  Canada,  141;  says  Ameri- 
can independence  improbable,  142 ; 
promotes  Walpole  granr,  175;  an- 
swers Lord  Hillsborough,  182;  at 
Quebec,  205,  222,  270  ;  his  services 
in  Paris,  280-283 ;  in  peace  nego- 
tiations, 281,  318,  322,  384. 


Franklin,  Governor  William,  175,  ISO, 
183. 

Fraser,  Lieutenant,  sent  to  Fi'lnois 
country,  164,  172. 

Frazer,  John,  87. 

Frederick  the  Great,  282. 

French  and  Indian  War  begun,  89. 

French  proper  names.  Confusion  in 
the,  59  ;  aid  the  Indians  during  the 
Pontiac  war,  125;  assist  Gladwin, 
130;  traders  become  British  sub- 
jects, 163. 

Friedenwald,  Dr.  Herbert,  184. 

Frontenac,  Count,  27,  34 ;  he  celebrates 
his  victories,  38. 

Fry,  Colonel  Joshua,  89. 

Fur-trade,  accessibility  of,  143,  286; 
description  of,  293,  295,  304,  347, 
381. 

Gage,  General  Thomas,  repudiates 
Bradstreet's  peace  with  Indians, 
139,  172,  183. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  meets  Washington 
on  the  Oliio,  310. 

Gallipolis,  settlement  of,  343. 

Galvez,  261. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  321. 

George,  Captain  Robert,  238. 

George  III.,  Gladwin  presented  to, 
139,  193,  198;  Brant  refuses  to 
kiss  the  hand  of,  300. 

Georgian  Bay,  11,  45. 

Gere,  An. able  de,  96. 

Germain,  Lord  George,  228,  248,  253. 

Germain,  Pere,  49. 

Germans  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley, 
72 ;  in  the  Northwest,  86 ;  in  New 
York,  178. 

Gibault,  Father,  receives  surrender  of 
Vincennes,  215 ;  Hamilton's  opinion 
of,  232,  235 ;  at  Michihraackinac, 
254 ;  Sinclair's  opinion  of,  255 ; 
baptizes  first  child  at  St.  Louis, 
256. 

Gibraltar  the  price  demanded  by 
Spain,  258,  282. 

Gibson,  Colonel  John,  writes  out  Lo- 
gan's message,  192,  194,  252,  268, 
269. 

Gillman,  Joseph,  339. 

Girty,  George,  211. 

Girty,  James,  211. 


393 


INDEX 


Girty,  Simon,  translates  Logan's  mes- 
sage, 192  ;  Ills  eurly  life,  212  ;  es- 
capes to  Detroit,  214 ;  witnesses 
torture  of  Crawford,  274  ;  escapes 
from  Detroit,  382. 

Gist,  Christopher,  his  explorations, 
75-80 ;  removes  to  the  Ohio,  85  ; 
accompanies  Washington  to  the 
French,  85  ;  his  sons,  75. 

Gladwin,  Major  Ilenry,  explores  Lake 
Erie,  140  ;  with  Sir  WiUiam  John- 
son at  Detroit,  109;  Lulian  com- 
plaints against,  110;  military  train- 
ing of,  115;  his  marriage,  116; 
forces  French  to  refuse  aid  to  Lid- 
ians,  130;  advi.^es  free  s;ile  of 
rum  to  Indians,  137 ;  his  course  ap- 
proved by  Amherst,  138;  promoted, 
138, 139  ;  returns  to  England  and  is 
presented  to  George  II L,  139  ;  death 
and  burial,  140. 

Gladici7i,  The,  strange  escape  of,  135. 

Gooch,  Governor  of  Virginia,  wel- 
comes Scotch-Irish,  72. 

Gorrell,  Lieutenant  J.,  commands  at 
Green  Bay,  129. 

Gouon,  M.,  warns  Gladwin,  112. 

Gouon  family,  59,  GO. 

Grand  Companv.  (*Sftf  Walpole  Grant.) 

Grand  Portage',  289,  293. 

Grand  Portage  of  Lake  Superior,  383. 

Grand  Sables,  17. 

Grant,Major,liisforceslaughtered,101. 

Gratiot,  Captain  Charles,  40. 

Great  Kanawha  River,  181. 

Great  Slave  Lake,  293. 

Greathouse  murders,  186,  188. 

Green,  George  W.,  287. 

Green  Bay,  4, 1 1 , 1 2, 21 ,  22, 23, 34, 1 29. 

Greenbrier  River,  settlements  on,  148. 

Greenville,  366. 

Grenada,  Government  of,  144. 

GrenoUe,  companion  of  Brule,  2. 

Grenville,  Sir  Richard,  founds  Roa- 
noke colony,  05. 

Gnffi7i,  The,  first  ship  on  the  upper 
Lakes,  27. 

Grigon,  Captain,  224. 

Grosse  Isle,  31. 

Grosse  Pointe,  Indian  defeat  at,  58. 

Grosseilliers,  Medard  Ciiouart,  Sieur 
des  Grosseilliers.  {See  Radisson 
and  Grosseilliers.) 


Guadalonpe,  141. 

Guerin,  Jean,  companion  of  Menard, 
15. 

Guyon,  Marie  Thcrese,  wife  of  Cadil- 
lac, 60. 

ITaldimand  Papers,  276. 

llaldiinand.  Sir  Frederick,  154;  stic- 
ceeds  Carleton,  215,  235,  250,  259; 
shocked  by  news  of  Crawford's  tort- 
ure, 275  ;  withdraws  war  parties, 
291  ;  opinion  as  to  boundaries,  292  ; 
refuses  to  surrender  posts,  29() ; 
seats  Mohawks  in  Canada,  298  ;  en- 
tertains Brant,  300,  337. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  330. 

Half -king  of  the  Six  Nations  de- 
mands the  retirement  of  the  French, 
85. 

Ifamelin,  Louis,  96. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  objects  to  for- 
mation of  new  States,  318. 

Hamilton,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania, 
89. 

Hamilton,  Ilenry,  Lieutenant-govern- 
or and  Superintendent  at  Detroit, 
205 ;  prepares  to  invade  the  Illi- 
nois country,  216  ;  accused  of  usur- 
pation, 227 ;  sets  out  for  the  Illinois 
country,  229 ;  repairs  fort  at  Yin- 
cennes,  230 ;  ignorant  of  Clark's 
approach,  234 ;  surrenders  Vin- 
cennes,  235  ;  his  journey  to  Will- 
iamsburg, 236;  placed  in  irons  by 
command  of  Jefferson,  237 ;  re- 
turns to  England,  237 ;  his  procla- 
mation, 263,  295  ;  appointed  Lieu- 
tenant-governor of  Canada,  312; 
removed,  312  ;  Governor  of  Bermu- 
da, 312;  town  of  Hamilton  named 
for,  312;  Governor  of  Dominica, 
313;  death  of,  313,  378. 

Hammond,  George,  British  Minister, 
297. 

Hamtramck,  Lieutenant-colonel,  854 ; 
receives  surrender  of  Fort  Miami, 
371;  arrives  at  Detroit,  370;  sketch 
of,  370,  377. 

ITanburv,  Thomas,  73,  81. 

Hand,  General  Edward,  213,  214,  267. 

Harding,  Colonel,  350. 

Hardy,  Samuel,  320. 

llarmar.    General,   takes   control   of 


393 


oi 


INDEX 


matters  in  the  Xorthwcst,  324,  336 ; 
gives  Sunday  dinners  to  Ohio  set- 
tlers, 341,  314  ;  expedition  of, 
against  the  Indians,  850. 

Harris,  Mary,  Indian  captive,  78. 

Ilarrisburjr,  Pennsylvania,  li\7. 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  231  ;  Gov- 
ernor of  Virginia,  310. 

Ilarrod,  William,  251. 

Ilartlev,  David,  perfects  treaty  of 
1783,  290. 

Harvard  College,  338,  339,  342,  340. 

Havana  captured  by  the  English,  141. 

Uav,  Jehu,  Lieutenant-governor  at 
Detroit.  130,  211,  237,  312;  death 
of,  313. 

Hay,  Major,  230. 

llayet,  Margaret,  sister  of  Radisson 
and  wife  of  Des  Grosseilliers,  10. 

Helm,  Captain  Leonard,  230,  236,  238. 

Henderson,  Colonel  Richard,  proprie- 
tor of  Transylvania,  216,  218, 

Henderson  &  Company,  322. 

Hennepin,  Louis,  longs  to  go  to  New 
France,  30  ;  assists  at  building  of 
the  Griffin,  30 ;  desires  to  remain 
at  Detroit,  35 ;  names  Lake  Ste. 
Claire,  32 ;  is  sent  on  a  voyage 
down  the  Illinois,  35,  168,  378.' 

Henry,  Alexander,  Britisli  trader,  129. 

Henrv,  Patrick,  Governor  of  Virginia, 
185,186,217,218. 

Henrv.  William  Wirt,  72. 

Hey,  Chief- justice,  197,  199. 

Hillsborough,  Lord,  opposes  Ohio  Col- 
ony project,  175,  181  ;  Franklin 
forces  resignation  of,  182,  196. 

Hinsdale,  Dr.  B.  A.,  316. 

Hoar,  Senator  George  F.,  327,  330. 

Hocking  River,  193. 

Holmes,  Ensign,  commandant  at  Fort 
Miami,  126. 

Howard,  Jacob  M.,  62. 

Howard,  John,  on  tlie  Ohio,  90. 

Hubbard,  Bela,  18. 

Hudson  Bay,  12,  21. 

Hudson  Bay  Company,  21,  144. 

Hull,  Lieutenant-colonel  William,  296, 
321,  339,  384. 

Huron  country,  6. 

Huron  Islands,  19. 

Hurons,  9,  12,  24,  34,  56,  67,  210,  211, 
300. 


Illinois,  County  of,  220. 

Illinois  country,  French  in,  168;  sur- 
rendered to 'the  English,  173,  203. 

Illinois  Indians,  23,  36,  56,  169,  208. 

Illinois  River,  26,  36. 

Indians,  Trade  with,  cut  off  by  Iroquois, 
38;  allotted  lands  at  Detroit,  46,  52, 
54;  their  claims  to  the  Northwest, 
86;  lands  of,  in  1763,  145;  treat- 
ment of  prisoners,  161 ;  trade  with, 
at  Fort  Cliartres,  169  ;  discipline  of, 
in  Ijattle,  190;  orgies  of,  207;  conn- 
cils  of,  210;  terrorized  by  Clark, 
238;  not  to  be  employed  against 
whites,  241  ;  after  Revolution,  291 ; 
expense  of,  292 ;  number  of  cap- 
tives taken  by,  352 ;  insist  on  the 
Ohio  as  the  boundary,  362. 

Ireland,  religious  persecutions  in,  71. 

Iroquois,  6  ;  friends  of  the  English, 
8,  12,  17,  23,  28,  39,  41,42,  66,  135, 
178,  221 ;  claims  of,  318  ;  claims  to 
Western  lands  not  valid,  319. 

Iivine,  William,  268. 

Isle  an  Cochon,  107. 

Isle  Royale,  20. 

Jacker,  Father  Edward,  16 ;  discovers 
Marquette's  remains,  27. 

Jamestown  founded,  65. 

Jamet,  Lieutenant,  128. 

Jay,  John,  peace  commissioner,  281, 
283 ;  failure  of,  in  Spain,  285 ; 
Franklin's  confidence  in,  285  ;  takes 
leading  part  in  treaty,  286 ;  his  ar- 
gument as  to  the  Northwest,  238 ; 
n-iumph  of,  290;  negotiates  treaty 
with  England,  367. 

Jay  Treaty,  367,  368,  370,  382,  384. 

Jebb,  Rer.  Henry  Galdwin,  107. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  his  report  of  Lo- 
gan's message,  191,218;  his  treat- 
ment of  Hamilton,  237;  assures 
Clark  of  aid  against  Detroit,  238 ; 
opposes  Spain  on  the  Mississippi, 
239;  his  policy  as  to  the  employ- 
ment of  Indians,  241,  242;  peace 
commissioners,  284,  285 ;  nego- 
tiates for  surrender  of  the  North- 
west posts,  297;  lovalist  poetry  as 
to  his  treatment  of  Hamilton,  312, 
320 ;  his  plan  for  ceded  territory, 
322,  324;   would  excludo  slavery 


394 


INDEX 


from  the  Northwest,  325  ;  T)ropose3 
classical  names  for  States  of  the 
Northwest,  ?.2r.,  829,  335. 

Jenkins,  William,  85. 

Jesuit  Maiiusaipt,  The^  CO. 

Jesuits,Claimsof,28;  traffic  in  furs, 43. 

Jo;:^iie3,  Isaac,  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  0  ; 
death  of,  8. 

Johnson,  Guy,  180. 

Johnson,  Sir  John,  British  superin- 
tendent of  Indian  alTiirs,  303;  his 
significant  letter  to  Brant,  303,  352. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  91;  in  charge 
of  Indian  affairs,  94,  106  ;  made  a 
baronet,  98 ;  at  Lake  George,  i/8 ; 
at  Detroit,  108,  IGO;  exceeds  his  in- 
ftructions,  153,  181,  188,213,  245; 
{.ends  Croghan  to  Illinois  country, 
162  ;  his  plan  for  Ohio  colon)',  174  ; 
ordered  to  perfect  Indian  boundary, 
177;  early  life  of,  179,  180;  death 
of,  247. 

Johnson,  Thomas,  president  of  the 
Potomac  Company,  311. 

Johnson  vs.  Mcintosh,  64,  187,  319, 
320,  323. 

Joliet,  Louis,  Birth  of,  C ;  on  the  De- 
troit, 25  ;  discovers  the  Mississippi, 
SS,  294. 

Joncaire,  Captain,  87. 

Jones,  Gabriel  John,  216. 

Jones,  Rev.  Arthur  E.,  6. 

Jordan,  John  W.,  380. 

Jouan,  Henri,  6. 

Juniata  River,  76. 

Kallend.vr,  Robert,  7S. 

Kaskaskia,  20,  170,  215,  218,  323. 

Kenton,  Simon,  1R5,  193. 

Kentucky  countr},  Gist  in,  80,  178  ; 
Indian  title  to,  180;  first  settle- 
ments in,  185,  216  ;  raids  into,  244, 
248,  262,  275;  influx  of  settlers, 
262,  308  ;  isolation  of,  309  ;  emigra- 
tion to,  340  ;  emigrants  to,  attacked 
bv  Indians,  341,  385. 

Kentucky  liiver,  80,  209. 

Kerlerec,  Governor  at  New  Orleans, 
169. 

Keweenaw  Bay,  15. 

Keweenaw  Point,  20. 

Kickapoos,  164,  165,  166,  167,  241. 

Kidd,  Benjamin,  44. 


King,  Rufus,  moves  to  exclude  slavery 

from  the  Northwest,  326,  829. 
King  Philip's  War,  9. 
King's  Mountain,  Battle  of,  75. 
Knight,  Dr.  John,  273. 
Kno.x,  Henry,  Secretary  of  War,  363. 

L'AxsK,  15. 

L'Arbre  Croche,  Indian  council  at,  227. 

La  Chine,  29,  45. 

fiU  Forest.  Lieutenant,  89. 

La  Fortune,  96. 

La  Hontan,  on  the  Detroit  River,  89. 

La  Jaunay,  Father,  missionary  at 
Mackinac,  128. 

La  Pointe  d'Esprit,  22,  23. 

La  Salle,  Rene  Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur" 
de  la  Salle,  friend  of  Count  Fruntc- 
nac,  27 ;  builds  the  Griffin — his  pur- 
poses— his  creditors,  28  ;  discovers 
the  Ohio,  29 ;  early  life  of,  29  ; 
reaches  St.  Ignace,  33 ;  builds  Fort 
St.  Joseph,  35 ;  builds  Fort  Criive- 
cteur,  37;  returns  to  Fort  Fronte- 
nac,  37 ;  murder  of,  37,  38,  55,  87, 
168. 

La  Tour,  store-keeper  at  Detroit,  GO. 

Labrador  fisheries,  200. 

Labutte,  Interpreter,  114. 

Laclede.     [Sic  Liguest.) 

Lafayette,  Indiana.  (6Ve  Fort  Ouia- 
tanon.) 

Lakes: — Athabaska,  293;  Chautauqua, 
74  ;  Erie,  25  ;  Maurepas,  55  ;  Mich- 
igan, discovery  of,  4  ;  Nipissing,  45  ; 
of  the  Ilurons  (early  name  of  Geor- 
gian Bay) ;  of  the  Stinkards  {see 
Green   Bay);  of  the  Woods,   290, 


293  ;    Pontchartrain, 


55 


Sainte 


Claire,  32  ;  Superior,  Menard's  visit 
to,  14 ;  Radisson's  desciiption  of, 
16;  called  Lake  Tracy,  22;  Win- 
nebago, 25 ;  Winnipeg,  292. 

Lalemanl,  Gabriel,  4. 

Lancaster  treaty  of  1744,  90. 

Langlade,  Charles  Michel  de,  82;  nt 
Braddock's  defeat,  96 ;  attacks  Pi- 
qua,  83;  family  of,  84,  129;  early 
life  of,  223,  224  ;  in  the  Revolution, 
223 ;  in  French  and  Indian  War, 
225 ;  at  massacre  of  Michilimacki- 
nac,  226. 

Lansdowne  Papers,  287. 


395 


INDEX 


Lauderoute  family,  69. 

Laurens,  llenrv,  peace  commissioner, 
284,  290. 

Law,  Judge  John,  166. 

Lead  mine?,  1C9. 

Le  Boeuf,  84,  129  ;  capture  of,  151. 

Le  Gras,  208. 

Lee,  Artliur,  299,  320. 

Lee,  Francis  Lightfoot,  184. 

Lee,  Ricliard  Henry,  184,  326. 

Lee,  Thomas,  73. 

Lernoult,  Major  Richard  Beriiiger, 
211  ;  builds  Fort  Lernoult  at  De- 
troit, 249. 

Leslie,  Lieutenant,  128. 

Lewis,  Captain,  demands  surrender  of 
Northwest  posts,  370. 

Lewis,  General  Andrew,  190. 

Ligucst,  Pierre  Laclede,  founds  St. 
Louis,  169,  256. 

Lincoln,  General  Benjamin,  361. 

Lincoln,  Mrs.  Abraham,  324. 

Linn,  Colonel  William,  220. 

Little  Turtle,  351. 

Livingstone.  Robert,  plans  English  set- 
tlement on  the  Detroit,  43. 

Lochry,  Colonel  Archibald,  267. 

Loftus,  Major,  Expedition  of,  172. 

Logan,  Iroquois  Indian,  188,  212;  re- 
venges the  murder  of  his  relatives, 
189;  his  me^;sage  to  Dunmore,  191; 
sketch  of,  192,  212,  251. 

Logstown,  76,  81,  85,  90,  156,  162. 

Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  343. 

Longprie,  Pliilip,  166. 

Longueuil,  Do,  39. 

Lorimer,  209. 

Louden,  John,  Earl  of,  245. 

Louis  XIII.,  2. 

Louis  XIV.,  25,  27,  44,  47,  53. 

Louis  XVI.,  280,  284. 

Louisiana,  33  ;  named  by  La  Salle, 
37,  55 ;  transferred  by  France  to 
Spain,  141 ;  transferred  to  France, 
304. 

Louisville,  29, 164,  220.  {See  also  Falls 
of  the  Ohio.) 

Lucas,  La  Salle's  pilot,  32,  33. 

Ludlow's  Station,  353. 

Lusson,  Saint,  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  24. 

Luzerne,  French  Minister,  284,  290 

Lyman,  General,  agent  of  Ohio  Cojii- 
pany,  176. 


McAffee  Brothers,  1 85. 

McClure,  Colonel  A.  K.,  151. 

MoDougall,  Lieutenant  George,  112; 
detained  by  Pontiac,  123  ;  escape 
of,  131. 

McIIenry,  James,  Secretary  of  War, 
371. 

Mcll wraith,  J.  N.,  102. 

Mclntosii,  General  Lachlin,  251,  252, 
267. 

McKee,  Alexander,  211  ;  carlv  life  of, 
213,  260,  262,  275,  346,  348,  362, 
364,  365,  366,  383. 

McLaughUn,  Andrew  C,  305. 

McLennan,  William,  102. 

McQuire,  John,  85. 

McTavislies,  the  fur-traders,  294. 

Mackinac,  229.  {Sec  also  Michilimack- 
inac.) 

Mahigan,  an  Ottawa  Indian,  discloses 
Pontiac's  plot,  114. 

Makemie,  Rev.  Francis,  founds  Pres- 
byterian  churches  in  America,  71. 

Maiden,  British  post  at,  372,  £83. 

Manitouliu  Islands,  11. 

Mann,  Captain  Gother,  his  report  on 
Northwest  posts,  347. 

Marest,  Father,  meiitions  Vincennes, 
165,  166. 

Margrv,  Pierre,  his  publications,  49. 

Marietta,  Settlement  of,  334-336,  351. 

Marin,  French  commander,  85. 

Marquette,  James,  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
22 ;  hears  of  the  Mississippi,  23  ; 
fouiuls  St.  Ignaco,  21;  joined  by 
Joliet,  25 ;  they  reach  the  Mississip- 
pi, 26 ;  their  return,  26 ;  death  of 
Marquette,  26;  buried  at  St.  Ignace, 
26,  38,  168,  221. 

Marshall,  Chief-justice,  decision  of,  64. 

Martin,  Abraham,  gives  name  to  Plains 
of  Abraham,  10. 

Martin,  Hel^ne,  wife  of  Radisson,  10. 

Martin,  Jacob,  on  the  Greenbrier,  148. 

Martin,  Major,  Cherokee  agent,  239. 

Maryland  proposes  to  divide  the  North- 
west lands  into  several  States,  315  ; 
refuses  to  enter  Confederacy  until 
Northwest  lands  shall  be  ceded, 
316;  instructs  her  delegates,  318; 
joins  the  Confederation,  319;  effect 
of  her  action  in  regard  to  Western 
lands,  321. 


396 


INDEX 


Mascoutlns,  5, 56,  57,  58, 1G4, 165, 166. 

Mason,  Edward  G.,  258,  251). 

Mason,  George,  218. 

Massachusetts,  Boundaries  of,  8,  66 ; 
confirms  Cadillac  f;rant3,  50;  cedes 
her  Western  lands,  320;  her  title 
indefensible,  321. 

Massacres  on  Susquehanna  and  Mo- 
hawk, 248. 

Matavit,  Father,  222. 

Matthew."?,  Major,  commandant  at  De- 
troit, 302. 

May,  Colonel  John,  his  trip  to  Mariet- 
ta, 310. 

Meij^s,  Return  Jonathan,  330,  342. 

Menard,  llene,  his  voyage  to  Lake 
Superior,  14;  death  of,  15. 

Meuoiuinees,  56,  57,  226. 

Mer  Douce  (name  of  Lake  Huron 
proper),  2. 

Mercer,  Lieutenant-colonel,  147. 

Miami  Indians,  78,  79,  80,  83,  346, 
348,  r>''>4. 

Miami  River,  75. 

Michigan,  66,  203,  320. 

Michiliraackinac,  23,  S3 ;  strategic 
point  for  fur -trade,  40;  sale  of 
brandy  at,  47;  massacre  at,  128; 
during  tlie  revolution.  221-228; 
Patrick  Sinclair  at,  253 ;  fort  built 
on  island  of,  254,  346,  348;  sur- 
rendered, 371 ;  civil  government  es- 
taUished  at,  378. 

Miller,  Christopher,  364. 

Mingoes,  270. 

Mirmct,  Fatlier,  at  Yincennes,  166. 

Mississippi  Company,  The,  184. 

Mississippi  River,  5  ;  Radisson  near, 
11;  Aliouez  hears  about  the,  22; 
described  to  Marquette,  23  ;  dis- 
coverv  of,  25 ;  free  navigation  of, 
281,  282,  285,  286,  322. 

Missouris,  56. 

Mobile,  261. 

Mohawks,  210. 

Moliere's"Tartuffe,"41. 

Moll,  Herman,  his  map,  165. 

Monckton,  General,  at  Fort  Pitt,  146, 
149. 

Money,  kinds  of,  165 ;  scarcity  of,  240. 

Monongahela  River,  Virginia  settle- 
ments on  the,  148. 

Monroe,  James,  320;  struggles  with 


question  for  tempv  rary  government 

of  the  Northwest,  326. 
Montcalm,  General,  174,  245. 
Montgomery,  (ieneral,  205. 
Montour,  Andrew,  76. 
Montreal,  Cai)itu!atiun  of,  102,  246. 
Moravian   Indians,    262 ;   at    Detroit, 

263 ;  origin  of,  264  ;  establi.shed  at 

Mt.  Clemens,  265  ;  massacre  of,  266. 
Morgan,  George,  Indian  Conmiissioner, 

108,  213,  229,  263. 
Morgan,  John,  309. 
Mound-builders  22,  335. 
Mount  Desert  title?,  based  on  Cadillac 

grant,  50. 
Murray,  Honorable  John,  187. 
Murray,  General  James,  Governor  at 

Quebec,  135. 
Muskingum  River,  76,  334. 

Xadoneseronons.     {See  Sioux.) 

Natchez,  55,  258,  201. 

Navarre,  Robert,  59. 

Negro  slavery,  67. 

Neville,  Captain  John,  213,  267. 

New  Brighton,  Pennsylvania,  157. 

New  Connecticut,  369. 

New  llavca  colony,  8. 

New  Mexico,  Mines  of,  286. 

New  River,  Settlements  on,  148. 

New  York,  Claims  of,  to  \Ye>tern  coun- 
try, 66;  Imlian  trade  in,  67;  early 
settlements  in,  178;  cedes  her  West- 
ern lands  to  tlie  United  States,  318, 
319;  wins  credit  by  giving  up  West- 
ern lands,  321. 

Newark,  Canada,  Trade  at,  381. 

Newfoundland  fisheries,  281,  285. 

Newton,  Marv,  wife  of  Snnon  Girty 
the  elder,  212. 

Niagara,  310;  surrendered,  371 ;  trade 
at,  381. 

Nicolet,  Jean,  protegd  of  Charaplain, 
3;  voyage  of,  4;  death  of,  6,  221, 
294. 

Niles,  Michigan,  257. 

Non-intercourse  resolutions,  186. 

North,  Lord,  defends  Quebec  Bill, 
200,  203 ;  succeeded  by  Rocking- 
ham, 283,  286,  290. 

North  Carolina,  65. 

Northwest  closed  to  settlers  in  1763, 
144;  first  charter  of,  145;  pledged 


397 


INDEX 


to  freedom,  103;  incluilcd  in  Vir- 
ginia, 195;  civil  government  b  'gins 
in,  205 ;  independence  announced 
in,  209;  jurisdiction  over  hinds  in, 
ceded  over  by  tlie  States,  315-322. 

Northwest  Company,  292,  293,  381. 

Northwest  posts,  United  States  de- 
mand surrender  of,  296 ;  British 
repair  tiie,  347 ;  surrender  of,  or- 
dered by  Dorchester,  370. 

Northwest  Territory,  early  laws  of, 
340.     (See  aho  Ordinance  of  1787.) 

Norvell,  Senator  John,  37. 

O  Post.     {See  Vincennes.) 

Ohio,  State   of,  phiuned  in  a  Boston 

tavern,  334. 
Oliio  Company  of  Massachusetts,  Tlic, 

f)  '.<  o 

Ohio  Company  of  Virginia,  Tiie,  organ- 
ized, 73  ;  sends  Gist  to  explore  cotm- 
tiy,  75;  company's  post  seized  by 
Fiench,  89 ;  attempts  to  establisli 
its  rights,  145;  financial  affairs  of, 
147  ;  coalesces  with  Walpole  or 
Grand  Company,  17G,  182,  183. 

Ohio  country,  included  in  government 
(»f  Quebec,  200 ;  influx  of  Xew- 
Englanders  to,  308. 

Ohio  Kiver,  discovcre<I  by  La  Salle, 
59 ;  settlements  on,  148 ;  demanded 
as  boundary,  302. 

Ojibwas,  6,  82. 

Old  Britain,  Indian  chief,  83. 

Old  Point  Comfort,  05. 

Old  Village  Point,  15, 

Onondaga,  Mission  at,  10. 

Ontonagon  copper  bowlder.  The,  22. 

Ordinance  of  1787,  324-329;  princi- 
ples of,  328;  origin  of,  329;  au- 
thorship of,  330. 

Osages,  50. 

Oswald,  Richard,  negotiates  treaty  of 
1783,  285,  2^8, 

Oswego,  248,  :''v:.  ^  surrendered,  371; 
trade  at,  381. 

OttagamJes,  5L,  57,  58. 

Ottawa  River,  45. 

.Ottawas,  26,  34,  42,  56,  57,  79,  80,  82, 
103,  111,  112,  114,  119,  120,  121, 
122,  129,  158,  174,  211,  224,  226, 
270. 

Ouiatanon,  129. 


Parent,  JosEni,  52,  CO,  129. 

Parker,  Gilbert,  14,  102. 

Parkman,  Francis,  2,  4,  8,  24,  112, 
113,  155,  173. 

Parkman  Club  of  Milwaukee,  10, 

Par.«ons,  General  Samuel  II.,  332,  333, 
336,  339. 

Paul ly,  Ensign,  126. 

Pease,  Seth,  309. 

PcUew,  George,  286. 

Penns,  The,  102,  ISO. 

Pennsylvania,  Indian  trade  in,  67  ; 
immigration  into,  71  ;  appropria- 
tions for  Indian  gifts,  177  ;  erects 
county  west  of  the  mountains,  182; 
claims  Pittsburg,  185. 

Pennsylvania  Dutch  in  Shenandoah 
Vafley,  80. 

PennsylviDua  Gazette^  209. 

Pensacola,  201. 

Pepys,  Samuel,  preserves  Radisson 
paper.s,  13. 

Perrot,  25. 

Phips,  Sir  William,  38. 

Piankeshas,  79. 

Pickaway  Plains,  190. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  first  proposes  ab- 
olition of  slavery  in  the  Northwest, 
325,331,  361. 

Pictured  Rocks,  18. 

Pinet,  Yves,  52. 

Pipe,  Captain,  Delaware  chief,  213, 
203,  273,  335. 

Piqua,  Croghan  and  Gist  at,  78;  French 
attack  on,  83. 

Pitt,  William,  comes  into  power,  99 ; 
his  American  policy,  100,  141,  143. 
{See  also  Lord  Chatham.) 

Pittman,  Captain  Philip,  171,  172. 

Pittsburg,  70 ;  In<lians  urge  building 
fort  at,  81,  89,  101,  209;  centre  of 
disturbances,  208,  340. 

Plains  of  Abraham,  100,  337. 

Plymouth  colony,  8,  65. 

Point  Pleasant,'  Battle  of,  ISO,  190, 
214. 

Pontchartrain,  Count,  44,  46,  51,  53, 
55. 

Pontiac  at  surrender  of  Detroit,  103 
104;  plots  destruction  of  fort,  111 
liis  character,  111;  plot  discovered 
117;  summons  Gladwin  to  surren 
der,  119 ;  vain  appeal  to  the  French 


398 


INDEX 


135;  sues  for  peace,  137;  meets 
Croj;lian  in  Illinois  country,  1»»7; 
sends  embassy  to  New  Orleans,  172  ; 
his  murder  and  burial,  173  ;  his  soti 
friendly  to  the  Americans,  1 14,  257. 

Pontiac  iJiarv,  1 14. 

Poole,  Dr.  William  F.,  276,  330. 

Port  Huron,  Michigan,  S'J. 

Port  Koyal,  50. 

Portage  Lake,  19. 

Porter,  Augustus,  369. 

Porter,  Captain  Moses,  receives  sur- 
render ol'  Detroit,  372. 

Post,  Frederick,  101. 

Potier,  P6re,  229. 

Pottawatomies,  34,  56,  57,  122,  127, 
210,  257,  201,  270. 

Pownall,  Governor  Thomas,  91,  183. 

Prairie  du  Roclier,  170. 

Presbyterians  in  America,  70. 

Presque  Isle  (or  Presq'  Isle),  77,  84, 
151. 

Preston,  Colonel,  189. 

Prince  Society,  9. 

Prisoners  surrendered  to  Bouquet, 
161. 

Proclamation  of  1703,  144,  195,  196. 

Purviance,  Samuel,  341. 

Putnam,  General  Rufus,  330 ;  in  the 
Old  French  War,  331  ;  acts  as  Wash- 
ington's chief  of  engineers  at  Bos- 
ton, 331  ;  petitions  for  the  location 
and  survey  of  Western  lands,  332 ; 
plans  the  Ohio  Company,  332,  336, 
351. 

QUAKEUS,  81,  151. 

Quebec,  Boundaries  of,  in  1763,  144  ; 

capitulation  of  town,  102. 
Quebec  Act,  The,  195-201,  198,  199, 

306,  318. 
Queret,  Pierre,  96,  227. 

Radissox,  Peter  Esprit,  arrives  in 
New  France,  10. 

Radisson  and  Grosseilliers,  first  voy- 
age of,  to  Lake  Michigan,  11  ;  prob- 
ably reach  Lake  Superior,  1 1  ;  did 
not  discover  the  Mississippi,  12 ; 
confuficm  in  regard  to  their  voy- 
ages, 13  ;  return  from  Lake  Michi- 
gan, 14;  voyage  to  Lake  Superior, 
16;  description  of  the  Lake  Supe- 


rior coast,  20;  return  to  Three  Riv- 
ers, 21  ;  they  transfer  allegiance  to 
England,  and  found  the  Hudson 
BivCompanv,  21,  294. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  04,  65. 

Rawlinson,  Richard,  13. 

Kaymbault,  Charles,  6,  8. 

Riivvenal,  290. 

Red  Jacket,  299,  369. 

Repetitigny,  Count,  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
60. 

Revolution,  The,  186,  193;  ended  in 
Northwest,  2<)9  ;  end  of,  announced 
at  Detroit,  275. 

Reynolds,  John,  321. 

Uiehardie,  Father  de  la,  59,  115. 

Roanoke  colonv,  05. 

Jiueheblave,  Philip  de,  96,  215,  219. 

Rogers,  Captain  Robert,  at  Detroit, 
102  ;  his  curly  life,  103  ;  at  siege  of 
Detroit,  133,  134;  plots  to  turn 
Michilimackimlc  over  to  Spain,  133  ; 
subsequent  career  of,  134,  320. 

Rogers,  Lieutenant  John,  232. 

Roman  Catholic  religion  in  Canada, 
200. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  185. 

Ros.s,  Clinton,  102. 

Roval  American  Regiment,  146,  155, 
245,  246. 

Russell,  Alfred,  62. 

Ryswick,  Treaty  of,  75. 

Sacs,  56,  226,  256. 

Sagard,  2. 

Saginaw  Bay,  33. 

St.  Ange  de  Bellerive,  164;  at  Fort 
Chartres,  167,  172;  gives  burial  to 
Pontiac's  body,  173;  administers 
justice  for  Spain  and  America,  255  ; 
delivers  St.  Louis  to  Spain,  256 ; 
death  of,  256. 

St.  Anne's  church,  Detroit,  46,  51,  54, 
56. 

St.  Aubin,  Charles,  60. 

St.  Aubin  family,  59. 

St.  Clair,  General  Arthur,  212,  333; 
arrives  at  Marietta  as  Governor  of 
the  Northwest  Territory,  336;  early 
life  of,  337,  338 ;  disputes  of,  with 
the  jui'ges,  340 ;  his  expedition, 
353  ;  failure  of  his  expedition,  357, 
378. 


399 


INDEX 


St.  Cluir  River,  25. 

St.  Genevieve,  1G9,  171. 

St.  Ignace,  8,  24,  ',V,i,  47. 

St.  Josepl),  8,  30,  47 ;  Spanish  raid  on, 
257 ;  population  of,  258  ;  occupied 
bv  the  Bi'iti.slj,  381. 

St.  Loger,  General  Uarrv,  228,  259, 
207. 

St.  Loui!^  founded,  169;  French  flock 
to,  171;  Sinclair's  expedition  against, 
250-258;  surrendered  to  Spain,  256. 

St.  Luc  la  Corue,  226,  245. 

St.  Philip,  170. 

St.  Piene,  Legardetir  de,  88. 

St.  Tlieresa'H  Kay,  15. 

Sandusk y,Cra\vford  expedition  against, 
269. 

Sandwich,  60. 

Sargent,  Mnjor  Winthrop,  333,  336, 
338  ;  adjuiant  general  of  St.  Clair's 
expedition,  354,  358 ;  erects  the 
county  of  Wayne, •377. 

Sargent,  Winthrop,  the  younger,  312. 

Sauk  Ste.  Marie,  first  mission  at,  6; 
permanent  mission  at,  22  ;  impos- 
ing ceremony  at,  24,  34,  37,  60,  61, 
62,  294,  348. 

Scalps,  153,  154;  Washington  advises 
paying  for  French,  154 ;  received  by 
Ilamilton,  214,  262;  collected  at 
Detroit,  278. 

Schauraburg,  Captain,  370. 

Schenectady,  178,  369. 

Schlosser,  Ensign,  127. 

Schuyler,  General,  289,  317. 

Scioto  Company,  Troubles  of  the,  343. 

Scioto  Purchase,  333. 

Scioto  River,  78. 

Scotch-Irish,  69,  70,  175. 

Scott,  Major-general,  365. 

Scull,  Gideon  D.,  9. 

Senecas,  157,  159,  162,  177,  180,  211, 
212. 

Settlers,  Character  of,  150. 

Seven  Rangers,  The,  334. 

Sevier,  John,  190. 

Sewell,  Stephen,  148. 

Shawanese,  78,  150,  157,  162,  163, 
180,  185,  188,  190,  209,  212  ;  Clark 
not  to  make  peace  with,  241,  251, 
270,  277,  348,  364,  367. 

Shea,  John  Dawson  Gilmarv,  6,  15, 
16,  26,  40. 


Shcafc  surrenders  Fort  Niagara,  375. 

Sheganaba,  son  of  Pontiuc,  213. 

Shclburne,  Lord,  approves  Ghio  proj- 
ect, 175;  reluctant  to  grant  inde- 
pendence, 283,  286;  driven  from 
I)ower,  289. 

Shelby,  Isaac,  193. 

Sheldon,  Mr.s.  E.  M.,  45. 

Sheridan,  Richard  Drinsley,  800. 

Sherman,  Colonel,  i)lans  invasion  of 
Spanish  territories,  308. 

Shlngiss,  King  of  the  Delawares,  85. 

Shirley,  Governor  William,  at  Oswego, 
99. 

Sidney,  Lord,  302,  314,  346. 

Sillery,  Rattle  of,  61. 

Simcoe,  John  Graves,  Lii'utenant-gov- 
ernor  of  Canada,  302,  363. 

Simple,  Fatiier  Peter,  205. 

Sinclair,  Lieutenant-governor  Patrick, 
40;  ordered  to  Michilimaekinac, 
253  ;  builds  fort  on  island,  264  ;  ex- 
pedition against  St.  Louis,  256,  267, 
258  ;  released  from  Newgate  prison, 
314. 

Sioux,  20,  22,  24. 

Six  Nations,  78,  85  ;  place  their  lands 
under  Englisfli  protection,  90,  108  ; 
complain  of  settlers,  149,  168;  offer 
to  part  with  title  to  Ohio  country, 
177,  181  ;  loval  to  the  Crown,  243, 
270,  299,  300,  362,  369.  (ixe  also 
Iroquois.) 

Slavery  in  the  Northwest  Territory, 
325,'  330. 

Sleeping  Roar  Point,  26. 

Smith,  Colonel  James,  his  narrative, 
95. 

Sorbonne,  The,  decision  as  to  sale  of 
liquor  at  Michilimaekinac,  47. 

Soule,  Anna  May,  289. 

Souligney,  96. 

Spain  assists  France  in  Seven  Years* 
War,  141  ;  aids  Americans,  220; 
hostile  to  tlie  English,  208  ;  tamper 
with  Indians,  1 80;  Spain's  raid  on  St. 
Joseph,  258;  her  claims  to  Western 
countrv,  260 ;  designs  of,  on  North- 
west, 280,  289,  308,  310 ;  aids  the 
United  States,  282 ;  controversies 
with,  322. 

Spottswood,  Governor,  leads  a  party 
to  the  Shanaudouh  Valley,  69. 


400 


INDEX 


Fproat,  El)enezcr,  342. 

Stamp  Act,  180. 

Stanwix,  (icneiul   John,   builds  Fort 

Pitt,  102. 
Sterling,  Captain,  nt  Fort  Chartres,  255. 
Sterling,  J.imo^,  luO,  173. 
Steuben,  Baron,  21>6. 
Stewart,  Hciirv,  85. 
Stone,  Frederick  D.,  330. 
Stougli,  Captain,  3r»0. 
Straits  of  Mackinac,  Discovery  of,  4. 
Sugar  Mand,  31. 
Suite,  Bcnj  imin,  3,  14. 
Survey?,  (Government  plaii  of,  320. 
Swiss  in  the  Northwest,  80. 
Syrames,  John  Cleves,  334. 

Talon,  24,  25. 

Tasse,  Josopii,  224. 

Tazewell,  Littleton  W.,  G5. 

Tennessee  Uiver,  Isl. 

Tiianies,  Battle  of  the,  194. 

Tht  Gladwin  schooner,  121,  120. 

Three  Rivers,  5,  12,  240. 

Thunder  Bav,  33. 

Thwaites,  Reuben  Gold,  G,  13,  33. 

Ticonderoga,  220,  245. 

Tobacco,  22 ;  as  medium  of  exchange, 
240. 

Tobacco  Nation,  12,  23. 

Todd,  Colonel  Jolm,  220;  establishes 
courts  in  Illinois  country,  238 ; 
killed,  275;  organizes  courts  at 
Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes,  323. 

Todd  and  McGill,  traders,  292. 

Todd  family,  r.24. 

Tonnancour,  Madeleine  de,  132. 

Tontv,  Alphonse  de,  45,  40,  51. 

Tontv,  Ilenrv  de,  30,  32,  39,  51,  55, 
108. 

Tories,  Compensation  for,  283,  280, 
30G,  312. 

Townshend,  Lord,  291. 

Townshend,  Thomas,  287,  391. 

Tracy,  Marquis  de,  22. 

Traders  as  cheats,  207;  corner  in  Ind- 
ian supplies,  249. 

Transylvania,  210,  822. 

Treacherv  with  Indians  legitimate,  125. 

Treatv  of  1703,  GO,  279. 

Treatv  of  1783,  279-282,  307. 

Trent',  Captain  William,  85,  89. 

Trotter,  Colonel,  350. 


Tiippcr,  General,  332. 
Turner,  George,  339. 

U.NiTED  Statks  first  mentioned  in 
Northwest  correspondence,  202; 
disastrous  effects  to,  bv  British  re- 
tention  of  Northwest  post.-*,  304  ; 
announcement  of,  ma«ie  to  army 
and  foreign  courts,  319. 

Upper  Santlusky,  2t'.2. 

Utrecht,  Treaty  of,  74,  75. 

Va.n  Clklkr,  Arendf,  17S. 

Van  Rensselaer,  Fatroon,  178. 

Vanbraan,  Jacob,  85. 

Vandalia  colony,  183. 

Varnuni,  Judge  James  M.,  333;  wel- 
comes St.  Clair  to  Marietta,  330, 339. 

Vaughan,  Benjamin,  280. 

Venango,  84,  lol,  129,  151,  353. 

Vergennes  intrigues  against  including 
Northwest  within  the  United  States, 
281,  283,  289;  chagrined  at  suc- 
cess of  peace  treaty,  290. 

Vermont  project  for  reunion  witli 
England,  247. 

Vessels,  Private,  on  Great  Lakes  for- 
bidden, 295  ;  character  of,  348. 

Vierville,  Gautier  de,  90. 

Vigo,  Francis,  captured  by  Hamilton, 
231  ;  assists  Chirk,  232.' 

Villeneuve,  Daniel,  224. 

Villieres,  Neyon  de,  171. 

Viinont,  Father,  5. 

Viiicennes,  82;  beginnings  of,  100, 
208,  105,  218  ;  surrenders  to  Amer- 
icans, 219;  surrenders  to  British, 
230,  323  ;  captured  by  George  Rog- 
ers Clark,  332-3;>8';  judges  at, 
make  land  grants,  324. 

Vinsenne,  Francois  Morgan  de,  founds 
Vincennes,  100. 

Virginia,  early  settlements  in,  60  ;  Ind- 
ian trade,  G7 ;  Ohio  grants,  89 ; 
boundaries  of,  00,  153  ;  settlements 
on  the  Ohio,  185;  holds  courts  be- 
yond the  Alleghanies,  195  ;  estab- 
lishes county  of  Illinois,  238;  lack 
of  funds  for  war,  240 ;  opens  land 
office  for  sale  of  Northwestern 
lands,  317;  remonstrance  of,  318; 
offer  of,  to  cede  Northwestern  lands 
refused  by  Congress,  319;  reserves 


2c 


401 


I N  D  E  X 


territory  for  Clark's  soldiers,  320; 
licr  HucriHce,  321. 

Wabash  Company,  187. 

Wabash  Irhli.ujs,  aiO,  348. 

W abash  Kiver,  78. 

Walker,  Charles  I.,  270. 

Walker,  Dr.,  explores  Kentuckv,  185. 

Walker,  Jo  ^eph  li.,  lo;i. 

Wulpoie,  Iluruco,  makes  f»port  of 
Wushin;:;ton,  94. 

Walpole,  TlioiiKis,  175. 

Wulpoie  grunt,  1-47,  174-17G,  181, 
183,  185,  320. 

Walsiiigiiani  opposes  peace  treaty,  291. 

Wultors,  Major,   121. 

War  of  48 12,  l'J4,  348,  384. 

Ward,  EuMgn,  8U. 

Washington,  County  of,  organized,  342. 

Washington,  (Jeorge,  surveys  Lord 
Fairfax's  laud.-^,  72  ;  journey  to  the 
Frencii  on  the  Ohio,  85-88;  at  Fort 
Necessity,  92  ;  with  Braddoek,  93  ; 
hits  bravery  at  Great  Meadow.-J,  97 ; 
in  Forbes's  expedition,  101  ;  diller- 
ences  with  Bouquet,  150;  his  con- 
nections with  Lord  Duninore,  187; 
land  claims,  184;  oilers  non-inter- 
course resolutions,  184,  186  ;  his 
opinion  of  the  treaty  of  1703,  195; 
at  Cambridge,  205;  unable  to  aid 
Detroit  expedition,  243;  Lidiau 
policy  of,  298;  liis  lands  on  the 
Ohio,  270 ;  owner  of  Oliio  land.<, 
309,  311  ;  visit  of,  to  Ohio  country 
in  1784,  310;  Gallatin's  meeting 
with,  310;  plans  route  for  Western 
trade,  311,  320;  plan  for  govern- 
ment of  Northwest,  325,  343  ;  plans 
to  assert  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States  over  the  Northwest,  345 ; 
culls  out  militia,  349,  353 ;  liis  an- 
ger over  St.  Clair's  defeat,  359; 
congratulated  on  surrender  of 
Northwest  posts,  371. 

Washington,  John  Augustine,  184. 

Washington,  Lawrence,  73  ;  manager 
of  Ohio  Company,  80  ;  favors  relig- 
ious toleration,  81. 

Washington  family,  The,  68. 


Watauga  commonwealth,  190. 

Wayne,  General  Anthony,  231  ;  earlj 
life  of,  359- 801;  cxpei  lion  of, 
3(10-307  ;  concludes  general  peace 
with  the  Indians,  307  ;  arrives  at 
Detroit,  877;  death  of,  3Sl. 

Wayne  county  organized,  377. 

Webster,  Daniel,  327. 

Weiser,  Conrntl,  90. 

Weld,  Isaac,  Jr.,  382. 

Wert,  (ieorge,  139. 

West  Virginia,  Indian  title  to,  180. 

Western  Indian  confederacy,  178. 

Wheeling,  188. 

White  Eyes,  Delaware  chief,  209,  229, 
203. 

White  Woman's  Creek,  78. 

Whiteti.-h,  10,  34,  348. 

Wild-hemp,  106. 

Wilkinson,  General,  353,  371. 

William  of  Orange,  30,  71. 

Williams",  Colonel  P^phraim,  founds 
Williams  College,  98. 

Williamson,  Colonel  David,  260,  275. 

Willing,  Miss  Anne,  155. 

Willis,  a  Storrs,  377. 

Wills  Creek,  89. 

Winnebagoes,  220,  257. 

Winsor,  Justin,  8,  13,  1  1.  24,  321. 

Winthrop,  Fitz-John,  3b. 

Wisconsin,  00,  320. 

Wisconsin  River,  25. 

Woleott,  Oliver,  299. 

Wolfe,  General  Jamc?,  100,  337. 

Woolson,  Constance  PVidmore,  382. 

Worcester,  General,  2z2. 

Wvandottes,  122,  158,  174,  203,  270, 
271,  272,  277,  304. 

Wyllys,  Major,  351. 

Wyinberley-Joncr5,  George,  354. 

Wythe,  George,  213. 

Yadkin  River,  135. 

"Yankee  Hall,"  prison  at  Detroit,  277. 

Yellow  Creek,  162,  189. 

Yorkc,  Sir  Joseph,  245,  254. 

Yorktowu,  Surrender  of,  279,  283. 

Zane,  Ebenf.zer,  341. 
Zeisbergcr,  David,  263,  265. 


THE  END 


By  ELIZABETH  B.  CUSTER 


FOLLOWING  THE  GUIDON.  Illustrated.  Post  8vo, 
Cloth,  OriKimeiital,  ^\  50, 

Tho  story  is  u  thrillingly  iiiicrcsling  one,  charmingly  toM.  .  .  . 
yU'S.  Ciislcr  gives  sketclics  photograpliic  in  tliclr  fiilt'lity  to  fact, 
nnd  toiiclics  them  witli  tlie  brusli  of  the  true  artist  just  enough  to 
give  tliem  coloring.  It  is  a  eliarniiug  volume,  antl  llie  reader  wlio 
begins  it  will  hardly  lay  it  down  until  it  is  finished. — Boston  TravdU  r. 

An  iidmirablc  book,  ]\Irs.  Custer  was  almost  as  good  a  soldier 
as  her  gallant  husband,  and  her  book  breathes  the  true  martial 
sp iri t.  — iSt.  Lo  u is  Hep ublic. 

BOOTS  AND  SADDLES  ;  or,  Life  in  Dakota  with 
General  Custer.  With  Portrait  of  General  Custer, 
and  Map.     Post  8vo,  Cloth,  Ornamental,  81  50. 

A  book  of  adventure  is  interesting  reading,  especiallv  when  it  is 
all  true,  as  is  the  case  with  '*  Boots  and  Saddles."  .  .  .  Mrs.  Custer 
does  not  ol)trud(3  the  fact  that  sunshine  and  solace  went  with  li'  r 
to  tent  and  fort,  but  it  inheres  in  lier  narrative  none  the  less,  and  as 
a  consequence  "  these  simple  annals  of  our  daily  life."  as  she  calls 
them,  are  never  dull  nor  uninteresting. — Emngelt'st,  N.  Y. 

No  better  or  more  satisfactory  life  of  General  Custer  could  have 
been  written.  .  .  .  We  know  of  no  biographical  \vork  anywhere 
which  we  count  better  than  this. — N.  Y.  Commercial  Adcertiser. 

TENTING  ON  TII^^.  PLAINS  ;  or,  General  Custer  in 

Kansas  and  Texas.    Illustrated.   Post  8vo,  Cloth,  81  50. 

]\[rs.  Custer  was  a  keen  observer.  .  .  .  Tho  narrative  abounds  in 
vivid  description,  in  exciting  incident,  and  gives  us  a  realistic  pict- 
ure of  adventurous  frontier  life.  This  new  edition  will  be  wel- 
comed.— Boston  Advertiser. 


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By  FREDERIC   REMINGTON 


SUNDOWN  LEFLARE.     Sliort  Stories.     Illustrations 

by  the  Author.     Post  8vo,  Cloth,  Ornamental,  §1  25. 

Sundown  Leflare  is  not  idealized  in  Mr.  Remington's  handling 
of  him.  He  is  presented  just  as  lie  is,  with  his  good-humor  and 
shrewdness  and  indomitable  pluck,  and  also  with  all  his  supersti- 
tion and  his  knavery.  But  he  is  a  very  realistic,  very  human  char- 
acter, and  one  whom  we  would  sec  and  read  more  of  hereafter  — 
Boston  Journal. 

CROOKED  TRAILS.    Illustrattdby  the  Author,    p   o, 

C'^th,  Ornamental,  82  00. 

Mr.  Remington  as  author  and  artist  presents  a  perfect  combina- 
tion. — Ph  iladclph  ia  Tc  Ic graph. 

Picture  and  text  go  to  form  a  whole  which  the  reader  could  not 
well  grasp  were  it  not  for  the  supplementary  quality  of  each  in  its 
bearing  upon  the  other. — Albany  Journal. 

PONY    TRACKS.      Illustrated  by  the  Author.      8vo, 
Half  Cloth,  Ornamental,  81  75. 

This  is  a  spicy  account  of  real  experiences  among  Indians  and 
cowboys  on  the  plains  and  in  the  ■  luu  tains,  and  will  be  read  with 
a  great  deal  of  interest  by  all  »ho  uio  lond  of  an  adventurous 
hfe.  No  better  illustrated  book  of  frontier  adventure  has  been 
published. — Boston  Journal. 


HARPER    &    BROTHERS,  Publishers 

NEW    YORK    AND    LONDOX 

Any  of  the  above  works  will  be  sent  by  mail,  postage  preprM, 
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